Fact Check: Houthi rebels attack Israel’s Ashkelon power plant? No, video is from Saudi Arabia
Claim: The video shows a massive fire at Israel’s Ashkelon power plant after an attack.
Fact: The claim is false. The video shows a fire at the Aramco oil facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, following a Houthi attack in March 2022.
Hyderabad: A video is being widely shared on social media with the claim that it shows a massive fire at Israel’s Ashkelon power plant due to a planned attack.
An X user shared the video with the caption: “The most powerful scene: The burning of the Ashkelon station reminds us of the days of Aramco. Israel turns off its lights.” ( Archive )
The 11-second clip shows massive flames rising from a structure resembling a power plant.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim was false. The video was old and showed a fire at the Aramco oil facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
A reverse image search led us to a video uploaded on YouTube in a video report by Al Arabiya on March 26, 2022. The text on the video read: ‘Scenes of fire breaking out at the Aramco station in Jeddah after it was attacked’ (translated from Arabic).
The viral video closely matched visuals from the Al Arabiya report, which confirmed that the fire occurred at Saudi Aramco’s oil depot in Jeddah after a Houthi attack.
Further keyword search led us to a Guardian report titled ‘Fire breaks out at Jeddah oil depot before Saudi Arabia Grand Prix’, dated March 25, 2002
The article reported that the fire erupted at the depot days before the Saudi Grand Prix, following an attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Similar images were included in this report, confirming the location.
A report from Reuters and CNBC confirmed that the visuals were from the Aramco facility in Jeddah, not Israel’s Ashkelon power plant.
Therefore, the viral claim that the video shows an attack on Israel's Ashkelon power plant is false. The video is from March 2022 and shows a fire at Saudi Aramco’s oil depot in Jeddah after a Houthi missile strike.
(This story was originally published by newsmeter, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)
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Three company directors held in Rs 100-crore investment fraud in Kochi
Kochi (Kerala) (PTI): Police on Sunday arrested three directors of a firm accused of cheating hundreds of investors of over Rs 100 crore through a fake investment scheme linked to agricultural tourism here, officials said.
The accused were identified as Muraleedharan, Ashik Murali and Akhil Murali, all natives of Thrissur.
The arrests were made by the Kalamassery police in connection with a fraud involving ATCOS (Agri Tourism Cooperative Society), a firm headquartered at Pathadipalam here.
Police said the company had promised high returns by collecting investments from the public in the agricultural tourism sector, but allegedly cheated hundreds of people and fled with the money.
ATCOS was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and operated 13 branches across various districts in Kerala, besides a branch in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
When investors failed to receive their promised returns or the invested amount, complaints were filed with the police.
Officials said around 54 cases have been registered against the firm in 32 police stations across the state, including 29 cases at the Kalamassery police station alone.
Following instructions from Kochi City Police Commissioner K S Mahesh Kumar, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shehensha and Thrikkakara ACP Manoj Kumar.
The team traced the accused to an apartment in Amala Nagar in Thrissur, where they had been hiding after secretly renting the flat, officials said.
The bank accounts of the accused have been frozen, and steps have been initiated to trace their assets, officials said.
Police also conducted a raid at the company’s office at Pathadipalam and seized several documents related to the case.
The accused were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kalamassery, which remanded them to judicial custody and sent them to Kakkanad jail.
Police said they would seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation as the investigation continues.
