Fact check: Saudi Arabia has not busted any assassination plot involving crown prince, alleged royal family member

Several users, the majority of whom appear to be pro-Yemeni accounts based on their past posts, have been sharing an image of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and an alleged royal family member on social media platforms X and Facebook since October 12, 2026, claiming that Saudi authorities busted an assassination plot involving them. However, nothing of the sort has occurred. Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis are at war again. The latest Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia came amid a renewed escalation in the conflict in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s internationally recognised government launched a military campaign to push Houthi forces away from the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key maritime route connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Saudi territory, including airports, military installations and oil infrastructure. The renewed fighting has intensified after years of intermittent conflict and a period of relative calm following a truce in 2022. On October 8, Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed that it had launched a ballistic missile towards King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, saying it had struck its intended target and disrupted air traffic. Saudi Arabia’s Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed three ballistic missiles, including two heading towards Riyadh and another directed towards Khamis Mushait. Subsequent attacks on Saudi airports have killed civilians. How it started On Oct 12, a user who appears to share anti-Saudi content based on their past posts shared an image on X, claiming that it shows an alleged assassin and a royal family member of the crown prince. The caption of the post said: “Attempted coup inside led by Sheikh Mubarak bin Nuwaf Al-Duaisi Al Saud. It appears there are deep and significant disagreements within the ruling family that may lead to the assassination of bin Salman and end his rule.” It gained 587,500 views. Another user shared the same visuals with the following caption: “Urgent! Right now in Saudi Arabia. Saudi intelligence announces the arrest of the owner of His Highness the Amir Mubarak bin Nawaf Al-Duaisi Al Saud and a number of officers and affiliates following an attempt to assassinate His Highness the Amir Mohammed bin Salman. And thus a military coup attempt that was supported by the Houthis has failed.” The post racked up 1.9 million views. The same visuals were shared by another user, accumulating 1m views. A pro-Yemeni account, based on its past posts, shared the same image with a similar caption, gaining 290,400 views. The image with a similar claim was further shared by several other users on social media platforms Facebook and X, as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here; collectively accumulating 108,300 views. Methodology A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in developments related to Saudi Arabia amid the conflict in the Middle East. A keyword search was conducted to verify whether any credible Saudi or international media outlets had reported any alleged assassination attempt or the involvement of any such royal family member. However, no credible reports confirming the incident were found. Further keyword searches for “Amir Mubarak bin Nawaf Al-Duaysi Al Saud” in both English and Arabic yielded no results on any such individual in the Saudi royal family. A reverse image search was subsequently conducted to trace the origin of the face shown in the viral image and led to the account of Iraqi YouTuber Ali Adel, who has no known connection to the Saudi royal family. The image was then examined using Google Gemini’s SynthID detector, which identified a digital watermark indicating that the image had been generated or edited using Google AI. A comparison of the circulated portrait and a screenshot of Adel taken from one of his YouTube videos was subsequently conducted using Quantilence, an AI-based facial-similarity analysis tool. The tool found a 93.7 per cent facial similarity between the two images, further supporting the finding that the portrait uses Adel’s picture rather than depicting a member of the Saudi royal family. The image was also analysed using AI detection tools and Sightengine flagged the image as 73 per cent AI-generated. Similarly, another AI detection tool, TruthScan, flagged the image as 99pc AI-generated. Undetectable AI also flagged the image as 99pc AI-generated. Further keyword searches revealed that the same claim had circulated on social media in March 2026, without any evidence at that time as well. Fact-check status: False The viral claim of Saudi authorities busting an assassination plot involving the crown prince and an alleged royal family member is false. No such incident has occurred, and the alleged royal family member does not exist. This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ-IBA and UNDP.

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