Old and unrelated video is falsely shared as footage of US airstrikes on Iran’s Nuclear sites
In the early hours of 22 June 2025, the US carried out an attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran (here, here, here, here, and here). Dubbed as Operation Midnight Hammer (here and here), the Nuclear sites located at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan were attacked. In this context, a video (here, here, and here) is being widely shared on social media, claiming to show the visuals of these attacks. We will fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Footage of the bombing carried out by the US on 22 June 2025 at Iran’s Nuclear sites during the Operation Midnight Hammer.
Fact: This video is unrelated to Operation Midnight Hammer and has existed online since at least December 2024. It reportedly shows Pakistan’s air strikes in Afghanistan from December 2024. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the claim, we performed a reverse image search on a few keyframes from the viral video. This search led us to news reports (here, here, and here) from December 2025 that contained the visuals from the viral video.
Russian media outlet RT uploaded this video on ‘X’ on 25 December 2025 and reported that the video shows a Pakistani airstrike at the Afghanistan border. As per this tweet, the Pakistani airstrikes were targeted at suspected Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.
As per the news reports from 25 December 2025, Pakistan carried out airstrikes on 24 December 2025, hitting multiple suspected Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideouts in Afghanistan. The strikes left at least 20 people dead, including women and children, and drew a strong response from the Taliban.
On 25 December 2025, Hindustan Times reported, ‘The airstrikes took place in a mountainous area along the border with Pakistan, though it remained unclear how deep into Afghanistan the jets traveled or the exact method of the attack. Purported videos circulating on social media showed infrared footage of the airstrikes, capturing the moment of impact and the destruction of suspected Taliban hideouts.’
To sum up, an old and unrelated video from December 2024, reportedly showing a Pakistani airstrike on Afghanistan, is falsely shared as footage of US airstrikes on Iran.