In March 2026, as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continued into its third week, a post on X (archived) about an alleged Iranian drone strike on a fuel tank at Dubai International Airport claimed that smoke was visible across the city "per live footage," and included video of a massive fire as seen from a nearby highway. A large cloud of black smoke rose from the fire, which appeared to be taking place in a large building.
(X user @shanaka86)
Another X post claiming the video showed a fire at Dubai International Airport was viewed millions of time before it was deleted. The video was shared to other platforms such as YouTube (archived) and Instagram (archived) as footage of a fire caused by an Iranian strike on the airport. The video paired with the airport fire narrative also was shared to social media in other languages, such as Arabic (archived).
However, the video was not of a fire at Dubai International Airport following a February or March 2026 Iranian strike on a fuel tank. It actually documented a 2020 market fire in another city in the United Arab Emirates.
A reverse image search for specific frames within the video revealed it had been previously posted to social media as far back as Aug. 6, 2020. At least two Facebook pages using South Asian languages posted it on that da
Both pages said the fire was located at "Ajman, Dubai." While Ajman is within the Dubai metropolitan area, it is its own city and does not directly border Dubai. The Dubai International Airport is not located within or adjacent to Ajman. The United Arab Emirates has a majority-immigrant population,
Confirming date and event of original video
On Aug. 5, 2020, Reuters and Arabic news sources such as Asharq Al-Awsat and Al Arabiya reported a large fire broke out at an Ajman market that had been closed for four months at the time of the fire.
The news outlets shared videos and photos from social media users who posted recordings of the fire. These images were consistent in showing a fire engulfing a large building and emitting a black cloud of smoke near a highway, often from a zoomed-out, overhead perspective.
In August 2020, social media users
For example, in a YouTube video (archived), the person recording the fire passed by the same brown road sign in the above video. The person recording this Facebook video (archived) drove by the same shopping center and the same brown road sign. The maker of an Instagram video (archived) also drove by the same road sign. All three videos attributed the fire to an Ajman market.
Confirming the location of the video
Among the landmarks visible in the footage claiming to show Dubai International Airport, just two of them are necessary to confirm exactly where the video was recorded.
The first is the brown road sign referenced above, which can be read when pausing nine seconds into the X video. While the text on the sign is blurry, locations named on it appear to include "Ajman Service Complex" and "Ajman Equestrian Club."
Ajman Services Complex and Ajman Equestrian Club are circled. (Snopes illustration/X user @shanaka86)
The second is the building visible at the very start of the video, which has words across the front beginning with the letters "SAL." The words in full can be seen between 0:13 and 0:19 in another video of the same fire, revealing that the building is the Salem Shopping Center.
The left screenshot is from the video posted to X in March 2026. The center and right images are from an August 2020 Facebook video, revealing the full sign reads "SALEM SHOPPING CENTER." (Snopes illustration/X user @shanaka86/Facebook page Syrians in the UAE )
A Google Maps search for a Salem Shopping Center in or near Ajman pinpointed a building with that name along a highway in that city. While the sign as it appears on Google Street View today uses a different font, a Google Street View capture from April 2016 reveals an image from about the same spot as the video was recorded, with both 'SAL' written in the same font and the brown sign clearly in view.
(Google Maps Street View)
When measured with Google Maps' measuring tool, the Salem Shopping Center and Dubai International Airport are roughly 12 miles apart.
A rough measurement of the distance on Google Maps revealed that Salem Shopping Center (the north point) is nearly 12 miles from Dubai International Airport (the south point). (Google Maps)
Real footage of Iranian strike at Dubai airport
Some of the social media sharing the outdated video claimed it was footage from a March 16, 2026, drone strike on a fuel tank at Dubai International Airport. That strike did happen, but video of it was far less dramatic than that of the 2020 Ajman market fire.
On March 16, 2026, The Associated Press uploaded a video titled "Large plume of black smoke billows over Dubai airport after drone strike hits fuel tank." The fire causing the smoke could not be seen in the video. The smoke itself rose almost entirely vertically, as opposed to the more widespread plume of smoke visible in videos of the August 2020 fire.
Reuters reported that Dubai International Airport temporarily suspended flights because of a fuel tank fire caused by a drone strike, but flights were gradually resuming at the time. The strike was the third attack on Dubai's airport since Iran began launching strikes at the country at the start of the U.S. and Israel war with Iran, according to Reuters.
Al Jazeera also reported on the strike and fire at the airport, and posted reported footage of the fire to X.
The Dubai International Airport was open and a notice on its website said flights were gradually resuming as of March 17, 2026.