Fact Check: Video of `Iraqi soldier' is from Arabic movie, not real-life drama

A video of an Iraqi soldier’s emotional farewell to his mother and his family while fighting Daesh is going viral on social media.

By Tejal Sinha  Published on  17 Jun 2021 4:15 AM GMT
Fact Check:  Video of `Iraqi soldier is from Arabic movie, not real-life drama

Hyderabad: A video of an Iraqi soldier's emotional farewell to his mother and his family while fighting Daesh is going viral on social media.



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The soldier in the video is seen showing the condition of the place where the fight had taken place.

Fact Check

The claim made through the viral post is False.

NewsMeter did a Keyword search and found a YouTube video aired on August 15, 2017. The video is a 17-minute-long short film 'Dialing' and the viral video was taken from the beginning of the video.

`Dialing' is a story of an Iraqi woman who is traumatized by the loss of her son who is fighting with the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Forces against the terrorist organization ISIS. She refuses to accept the idea of her son's martyrdom despite the factual and material evidence that proves it. The description also touches upon the social media confusion as to whether or not it is a real video.


We then found a report by Sakshi that had debunked the viral claim stating that the short movie is a heartbreaking story of a mother waiting for his arrival at the end.

According to the same report, Menhel Abbas, an Arabic actor, had starred in the short film.

https://www.sakshi.com/telugu-news/international/emotional-video-solider-farewell-iraq-short-film-1371568

We then visited the official Instagram handle of Menhel Abbas and found several videos and photos that were shared by the actor on his Instagram account.

https://instagram.com/menhelabbas?utm_medium=copy_link

He had also shared a link in his bio that took us to his YouTube channel where he had shared the video on October 29, 2017.


Evidently, the claim is False. The video is a part of an Arabic short film 'Dialing'.

Claim Review:Iraqi soldier bidding farewell to his family with an emotional video
Claimed By:Social Media Users
Claim Reviewed By:Newsmeter
Claim Source:Social Media
Claim Fact Check:False
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