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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

War & conflict fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about war & conflict. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

5,848 published reviews in this topic

Fact CrescendoWar & conflict

Claim: Pakistan not accepted that 300 terrorists killed in Balakot air strike

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerns reports and social-media posts saying Pakistan had acknowledged that 300 terrorists were killed in India’s 2019 Balakot air strike, based on comments attributed to former Pakistani ambassador Zafar Hilaly. The review says India reported that more than 300 people were killed, while Pakistan denied that deaths had occurred; it then focuses on whether Hilaly had actually conceded that they had. (S1)

BBC Reality CheckWar & conflict

"We rebuilt the United States military."

Publisher’s rating: This is exaggerated. It's true that Mr Trump's administration has increased the amount of military funding. However, the levels of spending is lower than what was spent on the military during Mr Obama's first administration (2009 to 2013), when using data adjusted for inflation.

FACTLYWar & conflict

ಪಾಕಿಸ್ತಾನದ ಬಾಲಾಕೋಟ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 26, 2019 ರಂದು ಭಾರತ ನಡೆಸಿದ್ದ ವೈಮಾನಿಕ ದಾಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ 300 ಜನ ಪಾಕಿಸ್ತಾನಿಗಳು ಸಾವನ್ನಪ್ಪಿದ್ದರು ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಪಾಕಿಸ್ತಾನದ ರಾಜತಾಂತ್ರಿಕ ಅಧಿಕಾರಿ ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರ

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLYWar & conflict

Former Pakistani Diplomat admits to 300 casualties in IAF airstrike at Balakot

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a screenshot of a Times Now tweet saying former Pakistani diplomat Zafar Hilaly had admitted to 300 casualties in India’s 26 February 2019 airstrike at Balakot. FACTLY reports that news outlets circulated this interpretation of an interview, but its investigation says the footage had been edited. The key distinction is between saying an attack killed people and saying the attackers planned to kill them: the review reports that the broadcast version changed the wording that conveyed that distinction. [S1: “A screenshot of a tweet posted by ‘TIMES NOW’ is being shared on social media claiming that a former Pakistani diplomat admitted to 300 casualties in IAF airstrike at Balakot in 2019.”; “Indian Media houses aired an edited video of Zafar Hilaly’s interview in ‘Hum Tak’ news channel.”] To check the claim, FACTLY compared the version circulated by Indian media with the complete interview on Hum News’s official YouTube channel, and consulted Hilaly’s tweets responding to the coverage. The review identifies the interview as having taken place on 23 December 2020. It says the circulated video replaced “planned to kill” with “killed,” changing the meaning of Hilaly’s statement. [S1: “Zafar Hilaly posted a series of tweets on ‘10 January 2021’, clarifying his statement telecasted in several Indian media channels.”; “we found the complete interview footage in the official YouTube channel of ‘Hum News’.”; “interview of Zafar Hilaly on ‘Hum Tak’ news channel took place on ‘23 December 2020’.”; “In the edited video, ‘Marne Tha’ (planned to kill) sound is replaced with ‘Maara Tha’(Killed).”] The review further says that, in the complete interview, Hilaly described a plan to kill at least 300 people, but said they were not there. It also notes that the Indian-media video was displayed in reverse. Taken together, the reported comparison supports the review’s conclusion that the footage did not show Hilaly admitting that 300 people were killed in the strike. [S1: “In the original video, Zafar Hilaly said ‘Kam Se Kam Theen Souv Logon ko Unhe Marne Tha, Itthefaqan Wo Nahi Mare’ (They planned to kill at least 300 men on our side, But they couldn’t).”; “Also, the video shared by Indian news channels is the reverse display of Zafar Hilaly interview telecast on ‘Hum News’ media channel.”]

FACTLYWar & conflict

Photo of Mary Vermont, an American military officer who killed Iran’s Military Commander Qasem Soleimani.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post claimed that a woman pictured in military-style clothing was Mary Vermont, an American military officer who killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. The review says the image was misidentified: it shows Yulia Chabanova, an airsoft gamer from Kostanay, Kazakhstan, rather than an American military official. To investigate the photo’s identity, the review describes conducting a reverse-image search. It says that search found a similar image on the Russian social-media platform VK, where the woman was identified as Chabanova. The review also points to similar military-attire images on Chabanova’s Instagram and to her YouTube channel, White Fox Airsoft, where it says she uploads videos about airsoft outfits. These details support the review’s identification of the pictured woman as an airsoft gamer, not the officer named in the post. The review separately checked the claim about Soleimani’s killing. It reports that BBC coverage placed his assassination by a US drone strike on 3 January 2020, and that The New York Times described an MQ-9 Reaper drone firing missiles at his convoy as it left Baghdad airport. The review says the cited accounts did not identify a woman named Mary Vermont as the person who fired the missiles, and it found no reporting that such an officer killed Soleimani. The supplied excerpt does not establish the identity of any individual operator; its evidence instead contradicts the post’s identification of the photo and the asserted role of the named officer.

FACTLYWar & conflict

Photo showing the remains of an Indian soldier who fought in the 1965 war

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photograph of a skeleton holding a gun, said to show an Indian soldier who fought in the 1965 war. The post also claimed that the remains were found three months after the war with the soldier’s fingers on the trigger. FACTLY’s review identifies the pictured skeleton as a model, not human remains, and says it was made by Dilip Sarkar MBE in 2017. [S1: “A photo of a skeleton with a gun is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows the remains of an Indian soldier who fought in the 1965 war. It is also being claimed that when the remains were found three months after the war, the soldier’s fingers were on the trigger.”; “The skeleton in the picture is not real. It is a model created by ‘Dilip Sarkar MBE’ in 2017.”] The review describes using Yandex reverse-image search to find similar pictures, some of which identified the skeleton as a model. It then reports finding the same photograph on Sarkar’s Facebook profile, where he said he made the model from a vintage Airfix 1/6-scale skeleton and Dragon Action figure parts for a magazine article. These details establish the image’s model-making provenance rather than the claimed wartime origin. [S1: “When the image was run through Yandex Reverse Image Search, similar photos were found in the search results. In the description of the photos, some of them mentioned that it is a model.”; “The same photo was found to be posted by him in January 2018. He wrote that the model was made using the vintage Airfix 1/6 scale skeleton and Dragon Action figures bits and was for a magazine article.”] The review also says the image had previously circulated with a different claim—that it showed a Turkish soldier—and reports that Sarkar told Teyit the model represented a German/Dutch soldier. It points to a step-by-step account of the model’s creation in Military Modelling magazine. The supplied excerpt does not give further details from that account, but the reported maker attribution and model materials contradict the claim that the photograph shows an Indian soldier’s remains. [S1: “The same photo was previously debunked by ‘Teyit’ in 2018 when the photo went viral with the claim that it shows a Turkish soldier.”; “The step-by-step creation of the model can be seen in the ‘Military Modelling’ magazine.”]

FACTLYWar & conflict

Video of Indian army conducting a military operation

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a social-media video presented as footage of the Indian Army conducting a military operation. FACTLY’s investigation concludes that the footage instead shows “Shield 2015,” a joint tactical exercise conducted by Serbian special forces in November 2015. It therefore does not depict the Indian Army, and the video’s military subject matter alone does not establish the claimed attribution. To identify the footage, the review says it used reverse-image searches on screenshots from the circulating video. It found matching visuals in a video posted by the YouTube channel “specijalne-jedinice” on 26 July 2017. That channel’s description identified the material as the Serbian exercise “Shield 2015”; the review also says the channel published an article on its website using the same visuals. The review reports two further checks against that identification: 123RF described similar footage as part of the exercise and dated it to 20 November 2015, and Serbia’s Ministry of Defence described a successful joint demonstration exercise called “Shield 2015.” FACTLY says the ministry’s photo gallery contains visuals similar to those in the circulating post. Together, the matching imagery and the exercise descriptions support the conclusion that old Serbian exercise footage was falsely linked to the Indian Army.