2016 Hurriyah car bombing hoax

 2016 Hurriyah car bombing hoax(hoax,  bombing,  false flag attack)

Date	30 October 2016
Location	Hurriyah,  Baghdad,  Iraq
Deaths	0
Injured (non-fatal)	0

The 2016 Hurriyah car bombing hoax was a real bomb in the Hurriyah area of Baghdad. It was reported as having killed people by commercially-controlled media, but a CCTV recording that was later released showed that it killed no one, although people quickly arrived to behave as victims.

Reporting

On 30 October 2016, Reuters published a report of a car bomb in that killed "at least 8 people and wounded more than 30 others", which was picked up by the New York Times and other outlets. The New York Times report that "Iraqi police say a parked car bomb has exploded in Baghdad's northwestern neighborhood of Hurriyah, killing at least 10 and wounding 34."

The Daily Mail reported on the 31st October 2016, that "a parked car bomb — hit a popular fruit and vegetable market near a school in the northwestern Hurriyah area, killing at least 10 people and wounding 34. IS claimed responsibility for the attack".

CCTV footage

The next evening a video was published which appears to be a hand held camera recording of CCTV footage of a bomb. This shows a man walking away from an empty, wrecked car and getting into a white truck, which drives away. A few seconds later the bomb explodes, and a few seconds later about a dozen men run to the scene and lay on the road apparently pretending to have been victims of the car bomb. A van then arrives, men get out and carry the "victims" into the it, as if they had been injured by the blast.

Exposure

Bellingcat reported on it on 4 November, after the video was released.

Cover up

The New York Times had removed their reporting of the incident by 11 December 2017.

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.