Outdated Video by MTV Shared as News of Al-Houthi Leader’s Death
The Claim
A news report by Lebanese channel MTV has shown that Ansar Allah al-Houthi’s group leader was killed in an airstrike by Saudi-led coalition air force in Yemen.
News posted on
Emerging story
Facebook and Twitter accounts have recently shared an alleged video claiming it was taken from a news broadcast by Lebanese channel MTV. It announced the news of the killing of the al-Houthi group leader in Yemen, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. The news said that the group’s leader was killed after an airstrike carried out by Saudi-led coalition’s fighter jets.
Description: The screenshots capture the purported claim that was shared on Twitter.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s team investigated the circulated claim and found that it was misleading. The video is outdated; it was shared by MTV TV channel in August 2015. At the time, the group’s leader was reportedly injured in a fire exchange in Yemen’s city of Sa’dah at the Saudi-Yemeni border. However, the channel backtracked, removing the video from all its platforms.
At the same time, al-Houthis denied on August 22, 2015, the news that their leader was injured in the Sa’dah fire exchange. The group said that these are nothing but baseless rumors spread by pro-Saudi coalition channels.
Description: The screenshot shows a piece of news titled: “The al-Houthis Deny News That Their Leader Was Injured.”
The claim has been circulating against the backdrop of the announcement by the Saudi-led coalition forces that they will carry out airstrikes on military targets in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
The Yemeni newspaper Al Mashhad was one of the first newspapers that circulated the news of the recent killing of Al Houthi, following the news about the targeting of Sana’a. The claim by the newspaper was based on speculations by unidentified media sources that are not credible.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi is the leader of the Ansar Allah al-Houthi movement. He became the leader in 2004 following the killing of his brother Hussain by the Yemeni forces after he was accused of forming an armed faction to rebel against the state.
Last year, Misbar fact-checked the claim after it resurfaced in March 2021.
Translated by Ahmed N. A. Almassri
