Unrelated old rescue operation video shared as Spain police shooting down an ISIS terrorist - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 9, 2021
A rescue operation video is being shared on social media claiming it as the visuals of Spain police snipers shooting down an ISIS terrorist. This video show police snipers rescuing a woman hostage. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Spain police snipers rescuing a woman from an ISIS terrorist.
Fact: This video shows Venezuela police snipers shooting down a robbery accused in 1998. This incident took place in Cua city, Venezuela. 18-Year-old Hector Duarte tried to rob a bakery and when the cops were alerted, he took Mercedes Lopez as a hostage. In the process of rescuing the woman hostage, police snipers shot down Hector Duarte. This incident has nothing to do with the Spain police and ISIS. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a similar video was found in an article published by the ‘Military.com’ website. This article reported that the incident had taken place in 1998, at Cua city in Venezuela. An eighteen-year-old Hector Duarte was reportedly shot dead by Venezuela police after he shot two children in their legs and took a woman hostage. According to the article, Hector Duarte planned to rob a bakery and when the cops were alerted, he fired at Police. After a brief shoot-out, Duarte was shot in the left forearm and left leg.  Hector Duarte then ran up to the nearby apartment and took a woman as a hostage.  In the process of rescuing the woman, Venezuela police had shot down Hector Duarte.
The ‘Dolar Today’ news website had published the same video on their YouTube channel with a similar description. The description of the video stated that the hostage situation occurred in Cua city in Venezuela. The head of the BAE group, Ivan Simonovis had reportedly coordinated this operation that ended successfully. Ivan Simonovis described the details of this rescue operation in an interview with the ‘Wall Street Journal’ news website.
‘AP News’ had published an article reporting that this incident took place in Venezuela. In the article, it is reported that eighteen-year-old Hector Duarte Bahamonte was shot dead while holding a gun towards the 44-year-old pregnant woman, Nancy Lopez. According to this article, Duarte seized and then shot two other hostages, including a nine-year-old boy. To rescue Nancy Lopez, Venezuela police shot a bullet to Duarte’s head.
To sum it up, an unrelated old rescue operation video from Venezuela falsely shared as the visuals of Spain police snipers shooting down an ISIS terrorist.