Claim: Several videos have emerged online showing clashes between the Afghan and Pakistani forces along the border.
Fact: Both videos are old and unrelated to the recent military clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
On 12 October, a video of what looks like a plane on fire was shared online with the caption: “🚨🔴 BREAKING: (No confirmed source)
A Pakistani fighter jet has reportedly been shot down near the Durand Line. 🇵🇰🇦🇫”
Tolo News, an Afghan news outlet, shared a separate video on the same day, writing, “
منابع: پنج نظامی پاکستانی در آن سوی خط فرضی کشته شدند
منابع به طلوعنیوز تایید کردند که در نتیجه درگيری میان نیروهای امارت اسلامی افعانستان و پاکستان، تاکنون پنج نظامی پاکستانی کشته و دو نفر دیگر زخمی شدهاند.
#طلوعنیوز”
[Translation: Five Pakistani soldiers were killed on the other side of the presumptive line.
Five Pakistani soldiers have been killed and two others have been injured as a result of clashes between the Islamic Emirate forces of Afghanistan and Pakistan, sources confirmed so far.
#ToloNews]
The same video was shared by Pakistani users as well, with general captions alleging that it shows clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In another instance, the video was also shared with claims about losses inflicted on Afghan troops and soldiers by Pakistan. Particularly, the post’s caption said:
“War drums thunder along the western front as Afghan forces attempt attacks on Pakistani outposts.
Pakistan has responded with fierce precision strikes, pounding enemy positions in Nangarhar and Kunar. The message is clear, any assault on Pakistan’s sovereignty will be met with steel, fire, and unwavering resolve.. 2 Afghan Taliban posts have been destroyed, 5 Afghan soldiers lost lives. While 2 Pakistani soldiers got injured..”
This article only aims to verify whether the videos are related to the Pak-Afghan border clashes. It does not fact-check the other claims made in the captions.
Clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
Dozens of fighters were killed in overnight border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan on 12 October, Reuters quoted both sides as saying and termed it “the most serious fighting between the neighbouring countries since the Taliban came to power in Kabul”.
According to officials, Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani army posts along the north-western border on Saturday, 11 October, and seized several of the posts, The Guardian reported. The attacks came after the Taliban regime in Afghanistan accused Pakistan of carrying out airstrikes on the country’s sovereign territory, particularly in the capital of Kabul, earlier that week. On 12 October, Pakistan responded with retaliatory airstrikes, gunfire, and ground raids targeting Afghan Taliban posts along the border.
In a statement, the media wing of the Pakistan military reported that 23 soldiers were killed and 29 others wounded in the attacks, The Guardian’s report added. The statement further claimed that 200 “Taliban and affiliated terrorists” were killed in the retaliatory strikes and that several terrorist training camps had been dismantled.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes of the first video and found that it was shared as early as July 2022 by a range of Indian news outlets. According to a Hindustan Times broadcast, two pilots of the Indian Air Force (IAF) were killed on 28 July 2022 when a twin-seater MiG-21 trainer aircraft crashed during a training sortie near Barmer in Rajasthan. The IAF said the aircraft was on a sortie from Utarlai air base, and the accident took place at around 9:10 pm, in which both pilots lost their lives.
Economic Times and NDTV also shared the same footage, confirming that it showed an Indian Air Force MiG-21 fighter aircraft, which crashed near Barmer in Rajasthan.
The video’s appearance as early as 2022, in the context of a crash in Rajasthan, confirms that it is unrelated to recent clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A reverse-search of the keyframes of the second video revealed that it appeared online as early as August 2021. The YouTube short was titled: “Viralvideo: War Between Taliban and Panjshir #Northernalliance #afghanistan.” On 6 September 2021, VIVA.co.id, an Indonesian online news portal, published an article carrying stills from the clip. According to the article, Taliban forces launched an attack on the main base of the Afghan National Resistance Forces (NRF) Northern Alliance in the Panjshir Valley. The article further added that, “according to information obtained by VIVA Militer, Monday, September 6, 2021, thousands of Taliban troops attacked not only from the ground but also from the air.” The stills in the article suggest that the clip is from this particular attack.
The video subsequently resurfaced online in October 2023 in different contexts.
While Soch Fact Check could not independently verify the origin and the context of the second video, its appearance online as August 2021 confirms that it is not related to the recent clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Virality
The first video was shared here on Facebook.
On X, it was shared here (archive).
It was shared here on YouTube.
The second video was shared here on Facebook.
On Instagram, it was shared here, here, and here. Archived here, here, and here.
On X, it was shared here (archive).
It was shared here on YouTube.
Conclusion: Both of the videos in question are old, and are not related to the recent military clashes on the Pak-Afghan border.
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Background image in cover photo: The Express Tribune
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