Pages on social media circulated a video, with those publishing it claiming that it documented a huge fire on the Mezzeh highway in Damascus that broke out as a result of clashes between armed factions.
The fact-checking team carried out a digital tracing of the clip that included reviewing the circulating data and matching it against official sources. It emerged that the video documents a fire that broke out in the woodland area at the Al-Sumariyah housing complex in Damascus, where fire crews were able to bring it under control and prevent it from spreading, while the relevant authorities denied the claims that spoke of a fire breaking out on the Mezzeh highway or of any link to clashes. Based on the results of the verification, the geographic location and the alleged cause do not match the established facts.
Why is this claim misleading?
Changing the context: The claim moved a real fire from its actual location at the Al-Sumariyah housing complex to the Mezzeh highway and attributed it to clashes between armed factions that were not established, in order to suggest a security breakdown in the capital.
