An image on Facebook claiming to show US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at an al-Qaeda training camp in Somalia is FALSE.
The image is of a woman holding a gun as a man looks on in the background.
“Here is your precious Muslim congresswoman at Al’ Qaida training camp in Somalia. She is trying to get the picture blocked,” reads the text above the image.
“That’s America’s Congress Woman Ilhan Omar,” reads the Facebook post accompanying the image.
Ilhan Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives, was born in Somalia. The Congresswoman’s family fled the country’s civil war when she was eight.
A reverse image search returns a link to an entry of the image on Alamy, a stock photography platform. The image is credited to the Associated Press and is available on the American news agency’s website.
The caption does not identify the woman in the picture. It, however, indicates that she is a recruit of the Somali Army. The caption also says that the image was taken in a military training campus at Halane, Mogadishu, and not the al-Qaeda training camp, as claimed.
Additionally, the Associated Press indicates that the image was taken on 25 February 1978. However, an internet search shows that the Congresswoman was born on 4 October 1982. This means that the image was taken four years before she was born.
PesaCheck has examined the image, purportedly of US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at an al-Qaeda training camp in Somalia, and found it to be FALSE.
Source: Pesa Check