FACT-CHECK: Iran’s failed attempt to spread disinformation on Kurdistan

Karwan Faidhi Dri

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian state media and other pro-Iran media outlets spread misinformation and disinformation about the alleged presence of an Israeli intelligence base in the Kurdistan Region in an attempt to justify Iran’s latest deadly attack on Erbil. Rudaw English has fact-checked footage altered by the network of pro-Iran media outlets behind the misinformation campaign.

Last week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched several ballistic missiles towards Erbil, claiming to target a Mossad base. The strikes resulted in the death of Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee and three others. Kurdish and Iraqi authorities have vehemently refuted Tehran’s claim. 

After the devastating strikes were rebuked by the international community, Iran resorted to the dissemination of fake news to legitimize its actions. It launched an extensive disinformation and misinformation campaign based on the release of doctored videos and photos aimed at corroborating its claim that Dizayee was affiliated to Mossad. Hours later, Kurdish media responded to Tehran’s campaign by publishing the original versions of the footage. 

One of the photos shared by Iran state channel Press TV on Friday portrays Dizayee standing next to an Israeli agent along with a group of Kurdish fighters affiliated with an Iranian-Kurdish political party. Dizayee is not present however in the original photo.  Another photo shared by the same media outlet portrays Dizayee posing for a photo with a “Zionist Rabbi” at an event, but similarly to the other one, Dizayee is not present in the original version of the photo. 



Press TV removed the altered photos hours after Kurdish media reported the attempt to spread misinformation late Sunday, with X adding a community note to the Iranian state channel’s post, warning that the image had been digitally altered. 

“Some pictures previously published in this article, received from a security source, have been duly removed as Press TV could not independently verify their authenticity. However, we stand by the story and information provided in it related to Dizayee and his accomplices killed in the January 15 strike by the IRGC,” said Press TV in a note under the article on Monday. 

Tasnim News, a media outlet affiliated to the IRGC, also shared the same photos, later explaining that it bears no blame for the dissemination of altered photos since it had obtained them from other Iranian media outlets. 

Rudaw's graphic experts examined the photographs and found distortions in the lighting and pixelation which led them to conclude that the images were doctored.

One day after the Iranian attacks on Erbil, pro-Iran social media users shared what they claimed to be an interview in which a “Mossad chief admits the existence of Mossad den in northern Iraq.” The interview, which actually dates back to 12 years ago, captures Israeli Ophthalmologist, David Israeli, speaking about laser eye surgery. 

The interview with altered translation:

 

The interview with actual translation provided by Rudaw.

Al-Etejah TV, a broadcaster affiliated with hardline pro-Iran militia Kataib Hezbollah, hosted a Kurd who claimed that a former Israeli agent of Kurdish origin had ties with the Kurdistan Region’s ruling party, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). 

Al-Etejah interview:

 

The agent in question is Eliezer “Geizi” Tsafrir - a long-serving Mossad officer from a Kurdish family.

However, the person the guest identifies as Eliezer is actually Aziz Sheikh Raza, former President of the Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) between 2005 and 2017. He died the following year. According to a BCF post shared in 2022 to commemorate his death, Raza was originally from Sulaimani province’s Raniya town.

Hemn Hawrami, a senior KDP official, condemned the spread of misinformation by pro-Iran media. 

“It is [a] pity to see this low level of dirty games. The person they referred to is actually Shex Aziz Raza from Rania , head of Barzani Charity Foundation 2005-2017. Aziz Shex Raza was a well known individual in Kurdistan who served in our revolutions and from a religious family in Rania,” he said of the deceased chief of BCF in a post on X on Sunday.

Dizayee, who died in Iran’s attack on Erbil, was born in the Kurdish capital in 1966, later migrating to Europe in 1991. Once in Europe he headed to Sweden and lived there until the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 when he returned to the war-torn country and established a business in Baghdad. 



He later made his way back to Erbil, where he took part in efforts to develop the city’s infrastructure. His most notable achievement is the construction of the Empire World residential project, featuring striking skyscrapers that adorn the skyline of the Erbil, iconic landmarks towering over the Kurdish capital.

He also established Falcon Group conglomerate which provides services in several fields, including security, oil, gas, construction, and agriculture. “We are pleased to provide security services to many international oil companies,” boasts the company on its website. 

No Mossad base
Kurdish authorities have repeatedly denied the presence of any Israeli bases in the Kurdistan Region. 

Safeen Dizayee, Head of Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Department of Foreign Relation, told reporters on Monday that the publication of misinformation by Iran was an attempt to “cover the crime,” referring to the deadly Erbil strikes. 

“In recent days you saw that, in order to cover the crime, they published some lies through photoshopped photos which were later exposed to be untrue. I hope that such things do not recur,” he said. 

RELATED: Iran appears to spread misinformation to justify attacks on Erbil

Peshawa Hawramani, KRG spokesperson, said in a statement on Monday that “This crime cannot be covered with any bogus campaign as well as fake news and altered photos. And this cannot deceive the public opinion in Iran, Iraq and the region.”

Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji last week visited Erbil to assess the aftermath of the Iranian attack. After inspecting the targeted location, he concluded that claims about the presence of a Mossad base in Erbil were “baseless.”

An Iraqi parliamentary committee investigating the incident concluded on Sunday that the targeted area was in fact a residential building, and not, as claimed by Iran,  a Mossad base.

KRG Interior Minister Reber Ahmed said on Sunday that the Iraqi-Iranian security committee, formed last year to deal with border security, met in Baghdad two days before the attack and the Iranian side did not express any concerns about an alleged Mossad presence in Erbil.