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Recently, posts on TikTok and X claimed that members of the US Navy SEALs, a special operations unit, were captured by Yemeni Houthi rebels and paraded through the streets with sacks over their heads. However, upon verification, this photo was taken during a 2016 Iranian parade commemorating the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The "US prisoners" depicted in the video were Iranians in costume, not actual US military personnel. Therefore, the online post is a fabricated piece of information.
In-depth analysis:
The US military has recently stepped up its crackdown on Yemen's Houthi rebels to weaken their threat to the Red Sea shipping lanes, but false information related to this has appeared on social media.
Account X, nicknamed Charming Little Red , posted a screenshot claiming that "American Navy SEALs were being sacked over their heads by Houthi rebels and openly 'walked' on the streets." Similar claims and photos were also widely circulated on TikTok ( 1 , 2 , 3 ), with posts from these accounts depicting US special forces as a global laughingstock.
The Asia Fact-Checking Lab conducted a reverse search on the image and found that the photo circulating online was taken in 2016. According to Israel Today and Radio Farda , Iran held a national event on February 12, 2016 to celebrate the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
But just a month before the parade, two US CB90 attack boats drifted into Iranian territorial waters near Fars Island in the Persian Gulf due to technical problems and were seized by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. After repeated negotiations between then-US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the 10 US sailors were released after being detained for approximately 15 hours. No one was injured.
The march was based on this incident, with participants imitating the scene of a US Marine kneeling in surrender and then being detained. The Associated Press took and published this photo at the time.
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