Old Video From Libya Used to Claim Taliban Learning to Fly US Helicopter

A video of a helicopter is being shared on social media to claim that it shows the Taliban trying to fly helicopters belonging to the United States after the latter withdrew troops from Afghanistan.

However, we found that the viral video is from Libya and could be traced back to June 2020.

CLAIM

The claim shared along with the video mentioned that Taliban has caught hold of US' treasure of expensive helicopters such as Blackhawks and Apaches and it is learning how to fly them.

Several social media users shared the video on Facebook with a similar claim. The archived posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On performing a Yandex reverse image search on some of the keyframes extracted from the viral video, we came across links that suggested that the video could be from Libya.

Taking a cue from here, we conducted a keyword search on Google and came across an article by Russia-based Piter.TV published on 5 June 2020 that carried the viral visuals.

As per the article, originally published in Russian language, the helicopter had then been acquired by the Libyan government.

Further, Lenta, a Russia-based media outlet reported about the incident on 5 June 2020 and mentioned that the forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya had captured a Mi-35 helicopter that belonged to the Libyan National Army (LNA) under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

The article carrying the viral visuals noted that the footage was published on the Military Informant Telegram channel.

Meanwhile, using Twitter Advanced search, we came across a tweet shared by Emadeddin Badi, nonresident senior fellow at Atlantic Council, on 5 June 2020.

"#Tripoli: last one for the day, GNA-aligned forces towing an #LAAF helicopter (Mi35) captured near Fom Melgha, at the outskirts of #Tarhuna (sic)," the tweet showing the viral video mentioned.

Evidently, an old video from Libya was used to falsely claim that it showed the Taliban attempting to fly US' helicopters after they took control of Afghanistan.

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