2019 mock military exercise video in Kuwait shared as visuals of Saudi Defence Minister frightened by firecrackers at the Chinese Embassy
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as the visuals of the Saudi Defence Minister who was frightened by firecrackers arranged for his welcome during the Chinese New Year celebrations at the Chinese Embassy. This video shows a group of uniformed soldiers escorting away a man donning a head scarf after chaos erupted during the welcome to a ceremony. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of the Saudi Defence Minister who was frightened by the firecrackers arranged for his welcome during the Chinese New Year celebrations at the Chinese Embassy.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows old visuals of a mock military exercise conducted for the Emiri guards in the State of Kuwait. The mock military exercise was conducted to train guards on how to protect prominent personalities from an assassination attempt. This military exercise was organised as part of the activities of the Gulf Defense and Aviation Exhibition event held at the Mishref International Fairgrounds in Kuwait. The video is old and it has nothing to do with Saudi Defense Minister or with the Chinese New Year celebrations. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video with similar visuals was found published by a YouTube channel on 12 December 2019. This YouTube user published the video mentioning it as visuals of a military training exercise conducted for Emiri guards at the fairgrounds. When we searched for this video using relevant keywords, we found the same video published on the official Facebook page of the ‘Alsaa.net’ news website. ‘Alsaa.net’ published this video on 13 December 2019, describing it as the visuals of a mock military exercise conducted for the guards in the state of Kuwait.
A clearer version of the video, shot from another angle was tweeted by the ‘Alhadath.net’ news website on 12 December 2019. This news channel reported it as a fake military exercise conducted for the Emiri guards, as part of the Gulf Defense and Aviation Exhibition event in Kuwait.
The full video of this military exercise was found published on the Kuwait Army’s official Instagram handle. Kuwait Army published this video stating, “part of the Emiri guard’s display that was carried out during the 5th Gulf Defense and Aviation Exhibition, which was held during the period from 10th to 12 December 2019, at the Mishref International fairground” (when translated from Arabic to English). From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post is old and shows a mock military exercise conducted for Emiri guards in Kuwait.
To sum it up, a 2019 video showing a mock military exercise in Kuwait is shared as visuals of the Saudi Defence Minister frightened by firecrackers fired at his welcome at the Chinese Embassy.