Are These Images From Airstrikes in Ethiopia?

Between October 28, 2021 and October 31, 2021, images of three jets were shared with claims that they were involved in an airstrike in Ethiopia.

From these images, clearly, they are military jets. But are they part of any of the airstrikes experienced in Ethiopia?

Background

Since the beginning of October Ethiopia has been experiencing airstrikes. On October 23, 2021  the United Nations Suspended all humanitarian flights to Ethiopia.

However later on  October 28, 2021, Ethiopia’s military carried out an airstrike on Tigray in a campaign of air bombardments. This raid hit a factory in Mekelle, used by Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and a residential building.

Verification

Looking at the first image, reverse image searches refer to this military jet as a Russian SU-35 camouflage fighter. More results on Wikimedia reveal that an image of this jet was shared on the internet as early as August 19, 2009. Wikimedia attributes this photo to vitalykuzmin.net, a military technical blog.

The second image, also classified as a Russian SU-35 camouflage fighter, was shared on the internet as early as May 5, 2011 from this reverse image search. According to englishrussia.com this and other SU-35 fighter jets were taken during a flying training.

The third jet on the other hand is described as a French Dassault Mirage  (Mirage F-1), from this Yandex reverse image search.  This combat aircraft came into service in 1973.

Further, images of this Mirage F-1 manufactured by Dassault Aviation appeared on the internet as early as November 29, 2015 on Wikipedia. Its first flight was in 1978.

Verdict

NO, these fighter jets were not in an airstrike in Ethiopia.

This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.