Claim: A video claims to show the aftermath of the Abha International Airport attack, which Yemen’s Houthis have claimed responsibility for.
Fact: This claim is false as the video is from 2021. It shows the aftermath of an explosion at the Jebel Ali Port in Dubai, which was reported on 8 July 2021.
Facebook user Ali Moazzam posted a video with a caption in English stating:
“Yemen’s Houthis Target Saudi Arabia’s Abha Airport, Warn Airlines to Avoid Saudi Airspace
Yemen’s Houthi movement has claimed responsibility for a missile and drone attack targeting Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport, marking a major escalation in regional tensions. The group also warned airlines against using Saudi airspace, calling it part of a broader response to recent events in Yemen.
Saudi authorities reported intercepting incoming missiles, while the situation remains fluid with conflicting reports about the extent of the damage. Authorities are closely monitoring developments as tensions continue to rise.”
Screenshot from Facebook post
Houthis attack Saudi Arabian airport
On 13 July 2026, Yemen’s Houthi group attacked Abha International Airport with missiles and drones. It was in retaliation to an attack on Sanaa airport, carried out by the internationally recognised Yemeni government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.
According to a statement by the Yemeni government, the attack on Sanaa airport’s runway was carried out on 13 July 2026 to prevent the landing of a plane carrying a delegation of Houthis arriving from Iran. A report by the Human Rights Watch added that, “Hours later, the Houthis attacked Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia with dozens of ballistic missiles and drones. The attack was ‘in response to the Saudi attack against Sanaa airport, according to the Houthi spokesperson.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched the keyframe at 0:02-0:03 to generate the origin of this video. The results yielded a video from five years ago, which was linked to a 2021 explosion at the Jebel Ali Port in Dubai, UAE.
The results of the reverse-search led us to a video shared on YouTube by the Saudi-Arabian, state-owned news outlet, Al Arabiya. It was titled “Footage of the aftermath of a container explosion on a ship at #JebelAli port in #Dubai #AlArabiya” and posted on 8 July 2021. The same video was found by Al Jazeera posted on 8 July 2021, the specific video can be seen in the time frame between 1:34 and 1:41 minutes.
The official X account of the Government of Dubai Media Office posted about the incident on 8 July 2021, saying the fire had been “caused by an explosion within a container onboard a ship at Jebel Ali Port”. News outlets like Al Jazeera and CNN also reported on the explosion on 8 July 2021, adding that the cause of the explosion remained unknown and no casualties were reported in the explosion that had been felt 25 kilometres from the centre of the blast.
As outlined below in a side-by-side comparison, the video in the claim is an exact match of the footage shared by Al Arabiya. Another keyframe that has been compared is where emergency vehicles are seen responding to the scene of the fire and similarly is identical to a still seen from the Al Arabiya video. In both cases, we see a yellow container gantry crane that is present in both frames showing it is a port.
Keyframes from the video published by Al Arabiya on YouTube match the keyframes of the video being fact-checked.
Keyframes from the video published by Al Arabiya on YouTube match the keyframes of the video being fact-checked.
The YouTube post by Al Arabiya and news reports of the incident, therefore, prove that the clip does not show the recent Houthi attack on Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia. Rather, it shows the aftermath of an explosion at Jebel Ali port in Dubai, which took place in 2021.
Virality
On Facebook, the video received 20K views and 73 likes
On X, the reel received 527 views.
Soch Fact Check has previously debunked other false claims related to this specific clip.
Conclusion: The video is not recent and does not show the Houthi attack on a Saudi Arabian airport. It dates back to 2021 and shows the aftermath of an explosion at the Jebel Ali Port in Dubai.
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