Illustrative image, source: the Houthis media wing
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis (Ansar Allah) in Yemen has been caught using footage from an old US documentary film in a propaganda stunt.
Coalition spokesman, Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, shared footage from the 2009 film “Severe Clear,” which documents the US invasion of Iraq, during a press briefing on the war in Yemen that was held on January 9.
#التحالف يكشف مجددًا مقاطع فيديو من داخل الهرم الحوثي، ويفضح بها عسكرة المليشيا للموانئ اليمنية.#واس_عام pic.twitter.com/BzFGB8iMIq
— واس العام (@SPAregions) January 8, 2022
The spokesman claimed that the edited footage shows a ballistic missiles workshop of the Houthis in the western Yemeni province of al-Hudaydah. However, the full footage from “Severe Clear” shows US troops touring an abandoned Iraqi missile factory.
The lie was quickly caught by Yemeni activists who shared the full footage from the film, which is publicly available on YouTube.
ناطق العدوان المالكي في فضيحة مدوية وأفلاس كبير يدعي وجود صواريخ في ميناء الحديدة بينما هي مسروقة من فلم أمريكي في العراق.
وهذا هو ديدن العدوان من البداية الكذب والتزيف ومحاولة ذر الرماد على العيون ولكن حبل الكذب قصير. pic.twitter.com/s2WOuxhWpL— العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) January 9, 2022
On Twitter, Brig. Gen. Yahya Sari, a spokesman for the Houthis, called the Saudi-led coalition’s fabricated claims a “major scandal”.
“This is the faith of the aggression [Saudi-led coalition]; lying, deceiving and red herring from the beginning, but the rope of lies is short,” the spokesman said.
Despite facing much criticism, the Saud-led coalition has not yet commented on the issue. The coalition’s credibility was seriously damaged as a result of this poorly thought-out propaganda stunt.
