As Iran-backed Houthi rebels pressed an offensive to take control of Yemen's Red Sea coast in early September, an old video resurfaced in posts falsely claiming it showed the group parading an armoured vehicle captured from Pakistani troops deployed to support Saudi-backed government forces. Islamabad said on September 10 that no military response is being discussed under its joint defence agreement with Riyadh, and the footage shared on social media has circulated online since April 2020 with no mention of Pakistan.
"Breaking News: After the clashes, Houthi forces have seized several armoured vehicles of the Pakistan army, which were provided to the Pakistani soldiers by Saudi Arabia," says part of the Urdu-language caption of a Facebook video shared on September 8, 2026.
It adds that Pakistani personnel were deployed to support Saudi Arabia's defence operations and "several Pakistani soldiers" had been killed.
The video shows a man driving an armoured vehicle while holding his door ajar, as another man sits on its hood. The vehicle is shown moving down a road as trucks and motorbikes drive by in the opposite direction.
The video was also shared in similar Facebook and X posts after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis launched an offensive on September 3 to seize control of the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait at the Red Sea's southern entrance ( archived link).
Yemen, embroiled in more than a decade of civil conflict, in July became the latest country to be drawn into the broader Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes against Iran in late February.
Since then, the Houthis have imposed a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and repeatedly attacked its ships in the Red Sea -- a vital alternative route for oil exports after Iran all but halted Gulf shipments by blockading the Strait of Hormuz.
Analysts dispute the extent to which the group is acting independently or following the wishes of its Iranian backers, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisting on September 8 that "behind some of this is clearly the Iranian hand" and Iran's foreign ministry denying any involvement on September 14 ( archived link).
While Pakistan has a defence agreement with Saudi Arabia, and has deployed troops and equipment to the kingdom, the circulating footage predates the latest fighting by several years (archived here and here).
Moreover, there have been no official reports of Pakistani soldiers involved in the latest clashes and Pakistan foreign ministry spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan was quoted on September 10 as telling reporters that Islamabad was not currently discussing a military response under its joint defence agreement ( archived link).
A reverse image search on Google u sing keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a longer and higher-definition version posted on X by Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the former president of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen, on April 1, 2020 ( archived link).
"An armoured vehicle belonging to the aggressors. May God protect the Mujahideen [fighters] and grant them victory over the [enemy's] armed forces, security and people's committees," says its Arabic-language caption.
Other videos posted on his X account also show the same vehicle ( archived link).
The Sanaa-based Yemen Press Agency reshared one of the clips, saying the vehicle was seized during recent military operations ( archived link).
There is no mention of the vehicle having been taken from Pakistani troops in either the X posts or the press agency article.
A sign for "Al Faris Medical Centre" is briefly visible at the 1:38 mark of the X video from April 1. The building and adjacent structures match a geotagged photo on Google Maps showing the medical centre in Bayt Marran in Sanaa, Yemen's capital (archived here and here).
AFP has previously debunked misinformation regarding the ongoing violence in the Middle East.