Video Of Yezidi Women Rescued From ISIS Camp Viral With False Claim

FactCheck

BOOM had debunked the same video in May, 2023 when it went viral with a similar false claim. We ran a reverse image search with screengrabs from the video and found a report by the media wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces carrying visuals from the same footage. The report stated that the Women's Protection Unit (YPJ or Yekîneyên Parastina Jin), an all-female militia unit of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), can be seen rescuing women from the Al-Hol refugee camp, previously controlled by ISIS, in the video. The report also carried a longer version of the video. Neither the report nor the extended version of the video mentioned that the women who were rescued were Indians. We later came across a thread on X by the Information and Documentation Department of the YPJ, featuring the viral video and additional information about the rescue mission. The thread stated that the rescued women were Yezidi, a Kurdish minority group. No mention of women of South Asian descent was found in the thread.