Fact Check: Viral Videos Falsely Linked to Riyadh Airport Attacks

Many videos claiming to show the attack on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport have been published online. DW's Fact Check analyzes some of the shared videos and finds evidence that they were created using artificial intelligence.

Fact Check: Fake Viral Videos Linked to Riyadh Airport Attacks

10/12/2026 October 12, 2026 Many videos claiming to show the attack on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport have been released online. DW's Fact Check analyzes some of the shared videos and finds evidence that they were created using artificial intelligence.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have taken responsibility for the recent attacks on Saudi Arabia's King Khalid International Airport. According to Saudi officials, at least 16 people have been killed since last Thursday.

As news of these attacks spread, social media users shared videos that they claimed showed these attacks. While some credible footage of the attacks and its aftermath has surfaced, DW's fact check found that several viral videos are not real and show signs of artificial intelligence production.

Claim: With 1.7 million views on X, this post claims to show the moment the airport was attacked.

This video has been online since March 2026 and cannot show the latest attacks on the airport.

Jerky camera movements and blurry footage help hide the glitches that often point to AI-generated content. However, our frame-by-frame analysis identified several inconsistencies. This indicates that the video was generated by artificial intelligence.

In the video, people run to the exit as an explosion occurs outside. Despite the apparent danger, they continue to move towards the explosion, apparently through a glass door. This reaction is unacceptable.

About 10 seconds into the video, an image of a hand holding a smartphone appears next to a man's head.

In 12 seconds, a man first appears to have no hands, then miraculously has one.

The AI detection tool finds AI meta-signatures in the video and concludes that it was created using generative AI.

Many shared the video as authentic, including The Times of Israel — whose post had more than 256,000 views at the time of writing.

This video has been published in many languages including Arabic, English, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Nepali and has been shared on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and other platforms.

Claim: In this post on X with 2.9 million views, a user claims to show "new video footage of the moment King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, was targeted."

Original image uploaded to Shutterstock stock photo database in 2016. Although shot from a slightly different angle, it shows many visual cues that overlap with the video, including the white triangular geometric patterns of the airport building's roof, the dome on the left, cargo vehicles, and the plane's open and closed doors.

Other elements are missing. In this video, the light pole on the left side of the plane appears without any lamps. The video is grainy and contains some visual glitches where parts of the image suddenly blur.

When the hypothetical missile hits the plane, the nearby vehicle significantly changes its shape as it is thrown into the air. Another paradox is that, despite the massive rocket explosion and resulting fireball, nearby objects do not cast corresponding shadows.

The account that shared the video has posted AI-generated content many times in the past.

While the October 8 attack at King Khalid International Airport heavily damaged one plane, the video does not show the moment of the attack.

The video is before the attack and shows people moving through objects

Claim: This TikTok post with more than 301,000 views claims the footage was recorded "right now from the heart of Riyadh Airport".

The video had already gone viral in March 2026, months before the attack. We noticed that the video was shared in Greek, Albanian, Turkish and Russian languages.

This video contains several visual anomalies. Parts of the image look blurry, and some people seem to merge into each other. In addition, a row of red lights in the terminal is illuminated one second before the supposed explosion is visible through the window.

The clearest indication that this video was produced by artificial intelligence is the way people move through the barriers in the queue. At the beginning of the video, several people appear to walk right past them. After the supposed explosion, some people go straight through obstacles that seem to end in mid-air and are only connected on one side.

Claim: This TikTok post, which has more than 500,000 views, is a report on the attacks on Riyadh Wabha airports and includes a collection of videos. We checked the first video.

Analysis using Google Gemini showed that the video was, at least in part, generated by Google's artificial intelligence tools. This clip contains the SynthID watermark on both the images and the audio.

The same video was also posted on Facebook, where it has received more than 157,000 views. It was posted on Facebook by an account that only shares AI-generated videos and is clearly labeled as "AI content."

All four videos checked by DW Fact Check are very short. Two take between six and ten seconds, while the other two take 13 and 15 seconds, respectively. Such short videos are easier to create with AI and often contain very little visual information, making it difficult for viewers to verify their authenticity.

Daniel Eberts contributed to this research.

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