In the latest example of the speed of disseminating information via social media, a man tweeted about the airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria Monday night, 30 minutes before U.S. officials confirmed the attacks.
Abdulkader Hariri reported what he believed to be the beginning of U.S. airstrikes against IS, in a tweet describing "huge explosions" shaking the Syrian city of Raqqa, which Islamic State has declared as its capital.
His tweet came half an hour before U.S. officials confirmed the airstrikes at 9:30 p.m. ET.
Breaking: Huge explosions shook the city in what might be the beginning of US airstrikes on ISIS HQs in Raqqa
— Abdulkader Hariri (@3bdUlkaed6r) September 23, 2014
Hairir, using the Twitter handle @3bdUlkaed6r, sent several more tweets describing the sounds of warplanes and the sky filling with drones.
The airstrikes 5/6 concentrated near the 'governorate building' ISIS's main HQ. Meanwhile, sounds of warplanes can be heard clearly
— Abdulkader Hariri (@3bdUlkaed6r) September 23, 2014
Reports of similar airstrikes on Tabga town and brigade 93 in Ein Essa.
— Abdulkader Hariri (@3bdUlkaed6r) September 23, 2014
The sky is full drones over Raqqa now
— Abdulkader Hariri (@3bdUlkaed6r) September 23, 2014
Also Tal Abyad, on the Turkish border, was bombed according to activists there
— Abdulkader Hariri (@3bdUlkaed6r) September 23, 2014
Monday's strikes were carried out by the U.S., Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. They came after U.S. President Barack Obama vowed in early September to fight the extremist group that has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Hairir's tweets invoke another time Twitter revealed details of a U.S. military strike that hadn’t been made public. In May 2011, Pakistani Twitter user Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) inadvertently live-tweeted the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.
As a U.S. helicopter narrowed in on the compound, Athar tweeted "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1 AM (is a rare event)." He then went on to describe hearing "windows shaking" and even mused about who the owners of the helicopter might be.
Eventually, when it was confirmed that the chopper had been part of the raid on bin Laden, he tweeted "Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it."
