Fact Check: Pakistan’s airstrikes on Kabul, explosions at night? Visuals show unrelated footage
A video and an image have been circulating online, claiming to show visuals of Pakistan’s airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan.
By - Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The visuals show Pakistan’s airstrike in Kabul in October 2025.
Fact:The claim is false. Both the video and the image predate the October 9 attack on Kabul.
Hyderabad: On October 9, multiple explosions rocked Kabul as Pakistan reportedly carried out airstrikes targeting Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) camps and their chief, Noor Wali Mehsud.
Meanwhile, several images and videos have been making the rounds on social media, claiming to show the visuals of explosions in Kabul. In this article, NewsMeter has fact-checked two such visuals. We have confirmed that the visuals predate the attack on Kabul.
Visual 1
A video showing explosions at two different spots at night has been circulating widely.
An X user shared the video, claiming, “#PakistanAirForce strikes TTP camps in #Afghanistan’s #Paktika Province after earlier hitting targets in #Kabul aimed at senior TTP leadership. Multiple waves of airstrikes are pounding TTP hideouts and command sites.” (Archive)
A similar claim can be found here.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the video shows Israel’s strike on the Gaza Strip.
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframe led us to the same footage shared by the X handle of Moscow News and Kabul News on October 23, 2023.
Both handles stated that the video shows Israel bombing the Gaza Strip.
We also found the video published in a Sputnik Armenia report, dated October 10, 2023. The report stated that the Israel Defence Forces had struck 750 military targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, which further confirmed that the footage is unrelated to the recent Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict.
Visual 2
An image showing huge smoke in the night sky is also being widely circulated, claiming to show a visual of an attack in Afghanistan.
Sharing the image, an X handle wrote, “The Pakistan Air Force just bombed Kabul and 3 other cities in Afghanistan. The Taliban are in trouble. Unprecedented…” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the image has been available online since at least August 2025.
The reverse image search led us to the image published in a report by Iran’s Islamic Republic news outlet on August 17. The report stated that the file photo shows an explosion in Syria’s Damascus.
According to the report, Israel reportedly had targeted the Al-Mazza District in Damascus with an airstrike.
We also found the image published by the Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) and Shafaq News on August 7, stating that the image shows an attack in Syria.
While NewsMeter could not independently verify the exact location of the image, we conclude it has been online since at least August 2025.
Therefore, neither the video nor the image shows visuals of strikes in Kabul on October 9.
