Fact Check: Afghanistan shot down a Pak jet? No, viral video is unrelated
A video circulating online claims to show a Pakistani fighter jet shot down by Afghanistan amid the ongoing cross-border tensions.
By - Rahul Adhikari
Claim:The video shows Afghanistan shooting down a Pakistani fighter jet.
Fact:False. The video shows an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon in 2025, unrelated to the ongoing Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions.
Hyderabad: Pakistani forces carried out strikes in Kabul and the provinces of Kandahar and Paktika as violence escalated between Afghanistan and Pakistan after months of hostilities, the BBC reported.
Amid the rising tensions, a video surfaced on social media claiming that Afghanistan has allegedly shot down a Pakistani fighter jet. The viral clip shows a massive explosion, with thick clouds of smoke and flames billowing high into the sky.
Several users shared the video on X and Facebook. One such user on X wrote, “Afghanistan claimed to shoot down at least one Pakistani fighter jet that entered its airspace: Live visuals coming from Afghanistan-Pakistan war” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. A video of an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon was falsely shared as footage from the Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict.
What did the media reports say?
A Google reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video revealed that it dates to 2025. Results included an October 17, 2025, report by Al Jazeera, which confirmed that the footage shows an explosion in southern Lebanon following Israeli airstrikes.
The report ‘Huge Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon despite ceasefire’ stated that the video was filmed on October 16 that year.
Al Jazeera also published the video on its official YouTube channel.
Analysis of the video
A detailed frame-by-frame comparison confirmed that the viral clip is the same footage as the one in the YouTube video, although the version uploaded as a YouTube Short looks zoomed in. Despite the difference in framing, the visuals are identical.
Upon further research, we found that several screenshots from the viral video were featured in an October 16, 2025, report published by Türkiye Today. The report stated that the visuals show Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon.
Has Afghanistan shot down a Pakistani jet?
There has been speculation on social media about whether Afghanistan has shot down a Pakistani fighter jet. However, the Afghan government has not made any official statement so far.
Therefore, NewsMeter has concluded that the claim is false.
