Fact Check: This photo does not feature US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at Al Qaeda training camp

Hyderabad: Social media users are sharing a photo of a woman wearing a headscarf and holding a gun with the claim it shows a United States Congresswoman at an Al Qaeda training camp in Somalia.

The text accompanying the photo reads, “Here is your precious Muslim Congresswoman at an Al Qaeda training camp in Somalia. She is trying to get this picture blocked.” While the post does not mention the name of the Congresswoman, we found that the photo was posted in reply to a post by US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, in which she criticised prime minister Narendra Modi, accusing his government of repressing religious minorities. The user is trying to insinuate that the woman in the photo with the gun is Ilhan Omar.

Another X user shared the image, hinting the same.

Omar wears her Muslim identity on her sleeve and has been serving as a US representative for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district since 2019. She also sports a headscarf in public life.

Fact Check

NewsMeter verified that the image does not show Ilhan Omar.

Upon a reverse image search, we found the photo published by the Associated Press on February 8, 2016. The caption read, “A woman recruit of the Somali Army checks her automatic weapon at a military training campus at Halane, Mogadishu, on Feb. 25, 1978. On the right is her instructor. President Siad Barre said at a news conference that regular Somali military units have not yet been dispatched in the Ogaden region to avoid international complications. (AP Photo).”

The caption explicitly states that the photo is from 1978. However, we found that Ilhan Omar was born in October 1982, and the other Muslim woman elected to the US Congress is Rashida Tlaib, who was born in 1976, two years before this photo was taken.

During our investigation, we found the photo was also posted on Facebook in 2019 by the former Republican state senator from North Dakota, Oley Larsen, with a similar claim. Omar reacting to the post, had written on X, “This is pure propaganda designed to stir up hate and violence coming from a GOP state rep. Facebook’s unwillingness to crack down on hate speech and misinformation is not just threatening my life, but our democracy.”

Hence, we conclude that any claim that the photo shows Congresswoman Ilhan Omar training at an Al Qaeda training camp is false.