Fact Check: Do Videos Show Moment Iran Missiles Strike US Targets in Iraq?

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. over airstrikes against Houthi rebels were heightened this week after Iran attacked what it said was an Israeli spy base in Iraq.

Reports from Iranian state media said a missile operation was launched against, among other targets, what it called an "Israeli intelligence headquarters."

News of the attack on Monday led to multiple videos, claiming to show the impact and scale of the violence, being posted online.

The Claim

Two posts by self-described journalist Sulaiman Ahmed on X, formerly Twitter, on January 15, 2024, posted videos described as showing missile strikes by Iranian military forces.

The first video shows what appears to be a missile being fired and evading attempts to destroy it. Ahmed said: "BREAKING IRGC MISSILE DODGES US DEFENCE SYSTEM".

The second video shows what looks like airstrike footage; Ahmed said: "BREAKING: US CONSULATE BEING DESTROYING BY IRAN."

The Facts

Neither of these clips depicts what Ahmed, who has published other misleading posts on X, claims they show.

The first video is from January 2022 when, according to Iraqi security officials quoted by the Associated Press, at least four rockets targeted the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

The video was posted on January 13, 2022, by the Middle East intelligence X account @AuroraIntel who wrote: "Video reportedly from this evening, CRAM reportedly successfully intercepted two rockets, this appears to be the final status of the third reportedly launched with an impact in #Baghdad, #Iraq, all three were 107mm rockets from initial reports."

A Business Insider report said the attack was launched from the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad.

The second video is of footage that has been attributed to missile strikes in Aleppo, Syria, and Erbil, Iraq. Newsweek has been unable to verify where the footage was shot.

The footage does not show the U.S. Consulate being destroyed by the missile attacks.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they carried out the strikes.

A State Department spokesperson told Newsweek that the explosions in Erbil had "no impacts on U.S. Consulate Erbil or the New Consulate Compound under construction" and no American personnel were injured.

In a statement published on Monday, the department said it "strongly condemns Iran's attacks in Erbil today and offers condolences to the families of those who were killed."

"We oppose Iran's reckless missile strikes, which undermine Iraq's stability. We support the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government's efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people."

The Ruling

False.

Neither description of these videos, attributed to Iranian missile strikes near a U.S. Consulate building in Iraq, is accurate. One is footage of a CRAM anti-missile system in Iraq in 2022. The second does not depict Iran "destroying" a consulate building either. Missiles landed near the consulate building but it was not their target.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team