An old and unrelated video showing fierce gunfire, circulating online since at least 2021, is being shared on social media as footage from the February 26, 2026 clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan border forces.
On the night of February 26, 2026, Afghan forces under the Taliban-led government launched what they described as retaliatory attacks on Pakistani military positions along the Durand Line, the border between the two countries. The escalation came after days of rising tensions following Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan.
The Claim:
The viral video was picked up by several media outlets including Times Now, NDTV Marathi, News 24, Deccan Chronicle and Reuters.
Times Now posted the video with the caption, "Afghanistan forces opened fire on Pakistani posts, triggering a prolonged exchange of gunfire. Afghan defence officials said their forces struck multiple Pakistani border positions, prompting intense cross-border fighting along the Durand Line after days of rising hostilities. Both sides report heavy gunfire and casualties in the clashes."
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Reuters also used the video in its article titled “Pakistan, Afghan forces clash after days of hostilities”, but later issued a correction stating it was “deleting a video containing incorrect information” and updated the visual. This was after Egyptian fact-checker Hossam ElHendy had called out the outlet for using the old video as a featured image in its article
What We Found:
1) Video dates back to 2021
We ran a reverse image search using Google Lens, which showed that the video dates back to at least 2021 and is not recent. Facebook and X posts from 2021 claimed that the video showed clashes between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front (NRF) in Panjshir following the withdrawal of the United States.
The same video was previously fact-checked by Fact Crescendo Afghanistan in December 2024 and by Arabic fact-checker MISBAR in October 2025, when it was being shared with false claims.
BOOM could not independently verify the video, However we were able to establish that it pre-dates the recent Afghanistan-Pakistan border clashes.
