We’ve been down this road before. Remember?
That photo, purporting to depict a car hit by Israeli missiles whose windshield nonetheless remained intact, was taken on August 6 by Nasser Nasser — who was also one of the photographers at Qana. Here’s another shot of the same car showing that its grill and headlights are missing. Maybe scavengers showed up after the “airstrike” and stripped them. Or maybe they were stripped long ago, before this piece of junk was dragged out onto the road and battered with something heavy in a pathetic imitation of explosive damage.
Flash forward six days now, to the aftermath of an Israeli rocket attack on a convoy in the Bekaa Valley. “The night sky suddenly lit and we heard an explosion towards the leading cars of the convoy,” said one eyewitness. Here’s what the damage looked like:
And an overhead view of the last vehicle, showing “the wreckage of cars” that came under attack all along the road:
Rockets. Which, again, somehow managed to spare the windshield on both vehicles. While making a dent in precisely the same spot in the roof of each. Oh, and the car in the first photo’s also missing its grill.
Who was the photographer? Nasser Nasser, of course.
Seriously, military people — what’s the deal here? Am I just showing my ignorance by not recognizing genuine explosive damage when I see it? Bullet holes and charring would seem to be the trademarks of an air attack; these cars look like they’ve been beaten with a sledgehammer.
Update: There might be bullet holes in the hood of the Jeep. Can’t tell from this distance whether they’re holes or just some sort of stain.
No windows on either of these cars either, except for the windshield. Were they blown out, or salvaged? If the former, where’s the glass on the ground besides the Jeep?
Update: Unrelated to these photos, but we do have another confirmed picture kill. Randy’s also got a possible fauxtography catch of his own, although I think that has less to do with phony photos than poorly written captions. The dates refer to the date each photo was taken, I think, not the date of the airstrike. Incredibly misleading, although perhaps not deliberately so.
Update: The Bekaa attack was carried out by Israeli drones. Are they even equipped with bullets?
Update: Michael Totten has a photo showing what happens when one of Hezbollah’s rockets comes in contact with a car.
Update: Clint Taylor e-mails me to say that it could be the first car went into a ditch in the panic after the attack and rolled over, rolling over a rock on its way. Which would still make the caption false, but would at least account for how the hole got there.
