Misleading: Viral video does not show US troops awaiting evacuation in UAE
A video shared on X and Facebook (here and here) on March 17 falsely claims to show U.S. troops in the United Arab Emirates waiting for evacuation orders amid U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran. In the video, many people in camouflage uniforms are seen lying on the floor of a corridor beside their belongings.
The claim quickly gained traction, with several reposts receiving over 2,000 likes. Many users appear to have interpreted the footage as evidence of a developing geopolitical situation involving U.S. military presence in the UAE.
However, no credit reports indicate that the U.S. troops are being evacuated from the UAE. While some U.S. forces have been temporarily relocated to hostels and office spaces due to damage at military bases, according to the New York Times, the viral video has nothing to do with recent events.
A reverse video search and source tracing show that the footage originated from a TikTok post uploaded on Dec. 18, 2025 (archived here).
The original post includes a location tag that reads: “Fort Lee ‧ Fort Gregg-Adams.” Fort Lee, formerly known as Fort Gregg-Adams, is a U.S. Army installation in Virginia that houses several training facilities.
This contradicts the claim that the video was filmed in the Gulf.
In our invesitigation, we also noticed that the X account that circulated the claim has changed its identity several times. Profile records show the username was altered twice, previously operating under the name “Iran TV” before rebranding as “Express News” with a different handle.
The text in the original TikTok video mentions “the night before HBL.” HBL, short for “Holiday Block Leave,” is a two-week break unique to Initial Military Training that allows soldiers “to pause training, recharge, and reconnect with family and friends,” according to an official Army Facebook post.
The post and the TikTok video were both published on Dec. 18, 2025.
According to other videos (for example, here and here) by the same TikTok user, she was undergoing Advanced Individual Training at the time and graduated in February this year.
Additional uploads from the same account feature the same corridor layout and identical location tags (here and here; archived here and here).
Versions of the clip circulating on social media omit the original location tag and include misleading captions, falsely suggesting it was filmed in a different location in the Gulf.
