A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, claims to show an Iranian missile avoiding U.S. anti-air and impact in Erbil, Iraq.

Crazy footage, Iranian ballastic missile evading US air defence in Irbil and hitting target.
People used to laugh at their missiles and drones a few years back. Now, they have proved it in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and in Ukr. pic.twitter.com/uwvYpQdt7U

— Rana (@ranaiftekhar) January 16, 2024

Verdict: Misleading

The incident is from 2022 and took place in Baghdad, not Erbil.

Fact Check:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched missiles into Erbil, Iraq, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, saying it was targeting an alleged Israeli “spy HQ,” according to Reuters. The IRGC also said it targeted the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Syria with missiles, the outlet reported.

Social media users are showing footage of a C-RAM, an air defense system, firing before a missile impacts. One user wrote, “Crazy footage, Iranian ballastic missile evading US air defence in Irbil and hitting target.”

However, this is misleading. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found that the video was not taken during the recent strike but is from January 2022. The video was posted to YouTube with the title, “C-RAM Responds To Missile Attack On US Embassy In Baghdads Green Zone.”

“Video footage shows a C-RAM system responding to a rocket attack on the US embassy in the Green Zone of Baghdad,” partially reads the video’s description. (Did Pope Francis Say That Jesus Was Born During A Census Taken By King David?)

Four rockets launched by possible pro-Iranian groups targeted the US embassy in January 2022, according to The New York Times. The embassy said in a statement on X at the time “that these sorts of reprehensible attacks are an assault not just on diplomatic facilities, but on the sovereignty of Iraq itself,” the outlet reported.