As the Iran war continued Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that misrepresented images and videos related to the fighting kept spreading widely online, often by reusing older clips or repackaging unrelated events as current evidence. The AP said the posts falsely claimed a range of battlefield developments, including strikes on Israel, scenes from Israel after Iranian attacks, and supposed U.S. damage in the region.
The AP’s fact-check roundup described multiple examples. One circulated claim said a video shows Iranian missiles falling from the sky in Israel; AP said the claim was false and that the video was a compilation of two separate clips from 2024. The AP said the first clip came from Aug. 9, 2024, was posted to Facebook with the caption “Mouloudia fans’ celebration of 103 years,” and was flipped horizontally in the version spreading online. AP said the second clip came from Aug. 12, 2024, was posted to Instagram by a photographer in Algeria, and neither clip was connected to the recent Iranian attacks on Israel. The AP added that the original clips did not include the screams and cries heard in the viral version.
Another viral claim said a video shows thousands of Israelis leaving Israel after Iranian attacks. AP said that claim was also false, and that the footage instead showed people arriving at Hellfest, a heavy metal festival in Clisson, France, in June 2025. The AP said the clip shows a crowd walking through a grassy field and along an adjacent dirt road, with people carrying large backpacks and wheeling carts with additional luggage. AP said the video was originally posted to TikTok on June 19, 2025, the day that year’s festival began, and that the caption read in French, “Hellfest campsite opened yesterday.”
The AP also addressed claims about attacks involving U.S. forces and military equipment. One claim said images show the USS Abraham Lincoln sinking or otherwise damaged after an Iranian ballistic missile strike; AP said the claim was false. AP reported that U.S. Central Command said in an X post that the warship “was not hit” and that “the missiles didn’t even come close,” adding that the U.S. command was continuing to launch aircraft. The AP said some of the viral images that purportedly showed damage to the carrier were years old, citing examples such as an image of a ship sinking into the ocean that has appeared online since at least 2021 and a June 2025 Facebook post that showed a ship engulfed in flames and billowing smoke.
Other claims the AP said were false included a video said to show the downing of a U.S. fighter jet in Iran. AP said the video was from a military-themed video game, where a missile speeds toward a fighter jet that then makes dramatic evasive maneuvers. AP said the clip shows a loud bang at the end and the aircraft moving toward the ground, and that the aircraft is identified as an F-4 Phantom II. AP added that a YouTube channel dedicated to military video game simulations originally posted the clip in November 2025, and that the clip’s caption states that “all scenes are captured in-game for entertainment and learning purposes only.” AP also noted that three U.S. fighter jets—F-15E Strike Eagles—were mistakenly downed in Kuwait rather than Iran by friendly Kuwaiti fire on Monday, according to the U.S. military, and that Iranian state television claimed Iran targeted one of the planes that crashed.
The AP reported similar issues with fabricated battlefield imagery. One claim said an image shows the body of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei under a pile of rubble; AP said the claim was false and that the image was created with AI. AP said Google’s Gemini app detected SynthID, a digital watermarking tool for identifying content that has been generated or altered with AI. AP reported that in the image, a body with a blurred face is trapped beneath rubble while men in hard hats and safety vests shine flashlights onto the area and work on clearing debris, with small fires burning in the background. AP said Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday that Khamenei had been killed in Saturday’s attack by the U.S. and Israel, and AP added that a photo of his body has not been publicly released.
In addition to the examples above, the AP’s fact-check roundup was presented as a “closer look at the facts,” and it pointed readers to additional AP Fact Checks through its website. The AP said writer Abril Mulato in Mexico City contributed to the report.