A circulating video of “explosions rocking Dammam after Houthi attacks”.. This is its truth

Social media accounts circulated a video clip claiming to be linked to attacks by the Houthi group in Yemen on the city of Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia. The video shows night scenes apparently filmed from inside a moving car on a highway, while a large fire or explosions with flames are visible in the background, with a column of thick smoke rising.

The video was accompanied by a misleading description that said: “Explosions rocked Dammam without activating sirens, and reports of the targeting of the Shaybah field in Saudi Arabia.” By splitting the video into still clips and using a reverse search, we found a copy of the video on the X website on October 14.

With a comment saying: “Footage shows - according to reports - another explosion occurred at an oil loading station in the Rostov region. The fire appeared to be extinguished this afternoon, before it ignited again.”

Returning to the news archives, we found an oil refinery in Rostov Province, southern Russia, that had been subject to prolonged Ukrainian attacks since September. The refinery processes about 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

Local authorities in Rostov Province announced that dozens of drones had been shot down over the past week. There is also footage similar to the video circulating on the ExileNova platform, which indicated that it was taken in Rostov.

The video was used in a different context by linking it to the Houthi group's attacks on Saudi Arabia, amid an exchange of strikes between the two sides. The intensity of the conflict has been escalating since the Houthis announced in July - in response to what they described as "retaliation for the Saudi siege of the Yemeni capital" - that they would target Saudi shipping traffic in the Red Sea as well as infrastructure within the kingdom.

These attacks have intensified in recent days, including repeated strikes targeting King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. 13 people were killed and more than 300 others were injured on Saturday, in what was considered the bloodiest attack against Saudi Arabia in more than a decade. The members of the UN Security Council condemned in a statement, on Thursday evening, the attacks “launched by the Houthis against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including attacks that targeted civil aviation and energy infrastructure and resulted in the death and injury of civilians,” according to what the United Nations News website reported.