Claim: A video shows an armoured vehicle recently seized by the Houthis that was deployed by Saudi Arabia for Pakistani troops.
Video: The video is unrelated to the recent clashes. It can be traced back to 2020, and originally shows a Yemeni politician named Mohammed Ali al-Houthi driving a vehicle which was seized from the Saudi forces amid clashes at the time.
On 7 September 2026, a page on X named Quetta Times shared a 47-second long video of a man driving an armoured vehicle. The caption of the original post reads:
#بریکنگ نیوز 🚨”
جھڑپوں کے بعد حوثی فورسز نے پاکستان فوج کی متعدد بکتر بند گاڑیاں قبضے میں لے لی ہیں، جو سعودی عرب نے پاکستانی فوجیوں کو فراہم کی تھیں۔ پاکستانی اہلکار سعودی عرب کے دفاعی آپریشنز کی حمایت کے لیے تعینات تھے، جبکہ رپورٹس کے مطابق ان جھڑپوں میں متعدد پاکستانی فوجی بھی ہلاک ہوئے ہیں۔
[Translation: “#BreakingNews 🚨
Following clashes, Houthi forces have seized several armored vehicles belonging to the Pakistan Army that had been supplied to Pakistani troops by Saudi Arabia. The Pakistani personnel were deployed to support Saudi Arabia’s defense operations; meanwhile, reports indicate that a number of Pakistani soldiers have also been killed in these clashes.”]
Houthi-Saudi clashes
On 8 September 2026, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry released a statement condemning recent attacks by Yemen’s Houthi group on its “civilian and economic assets in Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan, and Najran.” According to the ministry, the attacks injured 73 civilians, including women and children.
Reuters published a pre-recorded video message from Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree. According to the transcription published with the video, the Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack and called it a retaliation for the “unjust and brutal aggression against their people, targeting the provinces of Marib, Al Bayda, Hodeidah, Taiz and Al Jawf with dozens of airstrikes and committing major crimes.”
In his message, Saree specified that the Houthis carried out a large-scale military operation “targeting Aramco facilities in Abha and Najran, the Economic City, Aramco facilities in Jizan, and the Khamis Mushait Air Base.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also condemned the “cowardly attack” by the Houthis and expressed Pakistan’s “unwavering” solidarity with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and “the brotherly people of Saudi Arabia”.
On September 14, Saree claimed another large scale and drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid Airbase. On the same day, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, held urgent discussions with the US Central Command chief Adm Brad Cooper, after he arrived in Jeddah with his delegation, to discuss “the latest developments in the region.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse-image search to trace the original source of the video. It led to other accounts making a similar claim. However, one X link led to the profile of a Yemeni politician named Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, who was also the former president of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen according to Wikipedia. He shared a longer version of the video under investigation on 1 April 2020 which shows that the video predates the claim and is not related to the recent clashes between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.
Left: Video under investigation shared on 7 September 2026, Right: Video under investigation shared on 1 April 2020.
The X post, originally in Arabic, stated:
“[Translation: Armored vehicle from the aggressor’s armored vehicles
May God preserve the mujahideen, grant them victory through the armed forces, security, and popular committees.”]
Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search of “Mohammed Ali al-Houthi drives armoured vehicle” to look further into the original context of the video. It led to two articles, one by the Yemeni Press Agency (YPA) and the other by Middle East Monitor, both published on 2 April 2020.
Yemen Press Agency and Middle East Monitor reporting on the video, dated 2 April 2020.
YPA hyperlinked Al-Houthi’s X (formerly Twitter) post and reported:
“The Supreme Political Council’s member Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, appeared on Thursday in a video driving a modern armored vehicle of the Saudi-led aggression coalition in the suburbs of the capital Sanaa.
Al-Houthi posted a video on his Twitter account as he wandered the military vehicle, which was seized by the Yemeni army in Jawf governorate during the recent military operations.”
The Middle East Monitor also reported on the video. An excerpt of their report reads:
“Footage has also emerged, which was also posted on his account, of Al-Houthi driving an armoured vehicle believed to have been seized from Saudi-backed forces during recent engagements.”
Neither report mentions anything about the armoured vehicle being originally deployed to Pakistani troops in Saudi Arabia. Reports of Pakistan deploying troops and a squadron of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia emerged as early as 18 May 2026 after the two countries signed the Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement on 17 September 2025.
Hence, Soch Fact Check concludes the video is unrelated to recent clashes between the Houthis and Saudi forces as it dates back to April 2020.
Virality
Soch Fact Check first came across the video on X where it received as many as 311,900 views and 391 shares.
On Facebook, one post garnered 20,000 views.
Conclusion: While the video does show a Houthi leader driving an armoured vehicle, it is unrelated to the recent tensions as the clip can be traced back to April 2020.
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