Pakistan’s F-16 shot down by Afghan forces? Viral video’s authenticity in question

A video of an aircraft wreckage engulfed in flames is viral on social media claiming that it shows Pakistan military's F-16 shot down by Afghanistan forces amid the ongoing Pakistan-Afghanistan border conflicts. The aircraft in the video bears, what looks like a Pakistan flag and the tail number “85510.”

One such post shared on X shared the video with caption, “ BIG BREAKING NEWS. This is a Pakistani military F-16, American-made, that Afghan defensive forces have shot down.” 

However, the authenticity of the video remains in question as the shape and size of the plane do not resemble that of an F-16.

Pakistan, which launched a retaliatory operation in response to the alleged border attacks by the Afghan Taliban, has said it has killed over 130 Taliban fighters.

'Operation Ghazab lil Haq' commenced late Thursday night after the Afghan Taliban allegedly launched attacks on several border posts. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif confirmed that the operation was underway, saying that the armed forces are currently delivering a strong response to aggression from the Afghan Taliban.

Afghanistan media claimed their forces shot it down after Pakistani airstrikes entered Afghan airspace on Friday. Although Pakistan confirmed strikes on militants it reported zero aircraft losses.

The US-made F-16 jet is considered as a key asset of the Pakistan air force, was reportedly used in the airstrikes on the Taliban-led country.

However, as of now, there are no credible media reports confirming that Pakistan military’s F-16 was shot down by Afghanistan.

Authenticity of the video 

Deccan Herald ran the video through AI content detecting tools such as Hive Moderation, and it said that the video is 12.9 per cent likely to be AI-generated one. But the input read, "This input is not likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content"

Another free to use tool, Zhuque AI Detection Assistant, also showed that video is 64.24% likely to be AI-generated.

Video input results.

Similarly, when a user asked Grok ( X’s AI chatbot) to verify the video, it responded, “No, this video isn’t real as claimed. The wreckage shows a large aircraft with tail number 85510 and Pakistani markings, but it doesn’t resemble an F-16 fighter (wrong size/shape). No credible reports from Reuters, Al Jazeera, CNN or others confirm Pakistan losing any plane to Afghan forces today amid border clashes. It’s likely old/unrelated footage misattributed for propaganda.”

Despite some tools indicating the possibility of AI manipulation, the authenticity of the video cannot be conclusively determined. In recent times, several AI-generated videos have circulated online while evading detection systems, underscoring the challenges in verifying digital content.