Multiple videos have been circulating on social media platform X since February 27, claiming to show Afghan BM-21 rocket strikes, launched from the Alishero border district, targeting Pakistani military installations. However, the videos are unrelated to the current situation and are old.
Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban, after the neighbouring country opened fire on multiple locations across the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on late Thursday.
Authorities in Kabul had called it a response to Pakistani strikes against terrorist hideouts on Afghan soil over the weekend.
On Feb 27, a pro-Indian account on X shared a video of buildings set on fire. “Afghan BM-21 rocket strikes have begun from areas of Alishero district targeting Pakistani military installations across the so-called (imaginary) border… look what’s happened,” reads the caption.
The post gained 100,800 views.
Another pro-Indian account shared the same video with the caption: “Reports of BM 21 rocket strikes from Afghanistan’s Alishero district targeting Pakistani military installations.”
That post garnered 11,100 views.
The clip with similar captions was shared by several other pro-Indian and pro-Afghan accounts, as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
A separate video, showing rockets being launched in the darkness of the night, was shared by pro-Afghan accounts with similar claims.
One such user posted the clip with the caption: “Breaking BM-21 rocket strikes have begun from areas of Alishero district targeting Pakistani military installations across the so-called (imaginary) border.”
The post gained 22,400 views.
This video was further amplified by multiple pro-Afghan and pro-Indian accounts on X, as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and keen public interest in the ongoing conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A keyword search was conducted to verify whether any credible Pakistani or international media outlets had reported Afghan rocket strikes targeting Pakistani military installations, but it did not yield any results.
A reverse image search of the first viral video yielded Facebook posts and Egyptian news coverage. It was shared on Facebook by a user two weeks before the Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict broke out, with the caption, “Muslim extremists set fire to a Coptic Christian neighbourhood in the Egyptian capital Cairo”.
Another Facebook page, namely Global Disaster News, also shared the clip on Jan 29 with a similar context. “Emergency teams respond to a large fire burning structures in the Mokattam area southeast of Cairo, Egypt; eyewitness video shows at least one person on top of a building. – factual,” the caption reads.
This indicates that the video predates the current Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions and is unrelated to any cross-border rocket strikes.
A pro-Christian Instagram account also posted the same video on February 8, 2026, describing a fire in “Garbage City,” a Christian area in Cairo, stating that 21 houses were destroyed and two children died. The post received 1,300 likes.
An English-language Egyptian news outlet, Egypt Today, published a report on Jan 29 titled “Cairo fire brought under control; firefighting drone deployed”.
The report stated that a fire broke out in several homes in Mansheyat Nasser in western Cairo and was later contained by Civil Defence forces. No fatalities were reported at the time, though several people were treated for smoke inhalation.
Another Egyptian news portal, Gomhuria Online, published a report the same day titled “Fire in 3 houses in Manshiyat Nasser brought under control with no injuries”.
Separately, a reverse image search of the second viral video, allegedly showing the BM-21 rocket launch, yielded a YouTube video dated August 29, 2018, titled “M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS)”.
The description states: “5thBN3rdFAR conducts a night live fire exercise with the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in support of their Battery External Evaluations.”
The video had 42,142 views, indicating it is years old and unrelated to current events.
One video shows a residential fire in Cairo, Egypt, from January 2026, while another depicts a 2018 HIMARS live-fire exercise. Neither video is related to the current situation between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Therefore, the claim that viral videos show Afghan BM-21 rocket strikes on Pakistani military installations is false.
This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ-IBA and UNDP.
