An image in which fighter jets can be seen launching airstrikes has gone viral on social media. It is being claimed that Myanmar Military has launched airstrike against anti-coup fighters in Loikaw. Loikaw is the capital of Kayah state in east of Myanmar.
According to recent local media reports, “Myanmar’s military regime airstrikes have continued against Kayah State’s capital Loikaw as its ground troops appear to have been defeated by resistance forces.” Myanmar has been in a state of turmoil since the military seized power in February 2021.
The image is being shared on Facebook with a caption in Burmese that can be roughly translated in English to, “It is in Loikaw. You pass, not the city. #kayahstate”
(Original text: ဒါက Loikaw မြို့. မင်းတို့မြို့မဟုတ်ဘူး ကျော်သွားနေ #kayahstate)
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim and found it to be MISLEADING.
Doing a Reverse Image Search directed us to a Russian portal “infpol” that carried the same viral image in 2016. The headline can be translated in English to: “Large-scale Russian-Mongolian military exercises begin in Buryatia”.
Searching further, we found the same image published on another Russian website on August 31, 2016, which reported about the same military exercise.
Taking a cue from this, we searched the web and found many news reports published in 2016 which said: “The joint Russian-Mongolian military exercises “Selenga-2016” started at the training complex of the Eastern Military District “Burduny” in the Republic of Buryatia.”
Thus, it is evident from the above information that the viral image is at least 6 years old and does not relate to any recent development in Myanmar.
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