Kazakhstan Airsoft gamer falsely portrayed as the American military officer who killed Qasem Soleimani - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 6, 2021
Photo of a woman is being shared on social media claiming her as the American officer Mary Vermont who killed Iran’s most powerful military commander Qasem Soleimani a year ago. General Qasem Soleimani was assassinated by a US airstrike near Baghdad airport on ‘03 January 2020’. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of Mary Vermont, an American military officer who killed Iran’s Military Commander Qasem Soleimani.
Fact: The photo actually shows Kazakhstan Airsoft gamer Yulia Chabanova, not an American military official. Further, it is nowhere reported that an American woman military officer named Mary Vermont killed Iran military commander Qasem Soleimani. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, we found a similar image of the woman posted in Russian Social media service platform ‘VK.com’. She is mentioned as Yulia Chabanova, an Airsoft gamer from Kostanay city in Kazakhstan. It is mentioned that Yulia has been playing Airsoft game since 2017. Yulia Chabanova uploads videos about her new airsoft military attires in her YouTube channel White Fox Airsoft. Yulia Chabanove shared similar images in military attire on her Instagram page. They can be seen here, here and here.
When we searched for the details of Qasem Soleimani assassination on the internet, we found an article published by ‘BBC’ news about Soleimani’s death on ‘03 January 2020’. In the article, it is mentioned that Iran’s most powerful military commander, General Qasem was assassinated by a US drone strike on ‘03 January 2020’. ‘The New York Times’ reported that an American MQ-9 Reaper drone fired missiles onto the Qasem Soleimani convoy while leaving the Baghdad airport.
‘Al Jazeera’ also reported a video explaining the assassination of Qasem Soleimani by US drone strike. It is nowhere mentioned that a woman military officer named Mary Vermont shot these missiles onto the Soleimani convoy.
To sum it up, a Kazakhstan Airsoft gamer is falsely portrayed as the American Military officer who killed Iran’s Military Commander Qasem Soleimani.