Old blast videos falsely depicted as US strikes on Iran
"The first video of the explosion in Iran after the US attack witnessed by a foreign affairs expert has emerged online," reads the Burmese-language caption to footage of a massive night-time explosion, shared on Facebook June 22, 2025.
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Screenshot of the false post taken June 24, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
Another post from the Philippines shared a six-second clip of a massive fireball with the caption: "Breaking! USA bombs Iran's Fordow Nuclear site on Saturday!"
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Screenshot of the false post taken on June 23, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
Similar posts surfaced in Israel and Malaysia hours after the United States launched strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, along with Iranian nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz (archived link).
Iran and Israel have been trading deadly fire in their most intense confrontation in history since Israel carried out surprise attacks against Iran on June 13 (archived link).
US President Donald Trump said a ceasefire between the Middle East foes was in force on June 24, urging both sides to "not violate it" (archived link).
However, both clips predate the war that have killed hundreds in Iran and two dozen in Israel.
Ukraine drone strike
A combined reverse image and keyword search on Google found higher quality versions of the first video in multiple news reports about a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian ammunition depot in Tver region in September 2024 (archived here and here).
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Screenshot comparison of the video from the false post (L) to the video published by CNN
A Ukrainian drone attack on an arms depot in Russia's western Tver region on September 18, 2024 sparked a massive blaze that led to the evacuation of nearby residents, AFP reported at the time (archived link).
Further keyword searches found an X post from an account specialising in geolocating military activities from the Russia-Ukraine war that analysed the clip (archived link).
Using details from the analysis, AFP was able to confirm the video was filmed in Toropets by comparing features with Google Maps street imagery of the Russian town.
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Comparison of the video with visuals from Google Maps with similarities highlighted by AFP
Syria bombardment
Another reverse image search traced the second video to several news reports including Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera and NBC News on December 16, 2024 about Israeli strikes in Syria's coastal Tartus region, a week after the latter's president Bashar al-Assad was overthrown (archived here, here and here).
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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (L) and the Al Jazeera report
The area mentioned in the reports is nearly two kilometres away from the village of Bmalkah, in the hills above Tartus, where an AFP journalist saw roads filled with shattered glass and shreds of roller doors (archived here and here).
The force of blasts had stripped the leaves of olive trees in groves surrounding the village, and smoke still rose from nearby hillsides.
The clip has also been debunked by AFP in Arabic.
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France 24
18 minutes ago
- France 24
No definite proof for Iran's claims it shot down Israeli F-35 fighter jets
Since Israel's offensive against Iran began in the early hours of June 13, Israel has been circulating photos of its fighter jets flying towards Iran to destroy its nuclear sites and arsenal of ballistic missiles. The evening the offensive began, the Tehran Times, a media outlet with close links to the Iranian regime, announced that "an Israeli pilot' had been 'captured' and that Israel had said that two of its fighter planes had been shot down. The Iranian press agency Tasnim News, which has close links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, reported the same story, this time claiming that the pilot who had been captured was a woman. 'Iran downs fourth Israeli F-35' Press TV, a television outlet controlled by the Iranian regime, reported that Iran had become the "first country to shoot down fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets'. This US-built fighter jet is considered one of the most effective in the world and is especially known for its stealth. Israel was quick to deny these claims through their Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, who denounced "fake Iranian media outlets that spread baseless lies'. In the days that followed, Iranian media outlets continued to share what they said was a count of how many F-35 fighter jets the Iranian army had shot down. Press TV published an article on June 15 claiming that a third F-35 had been destroyed, explaining how the Iranian air defence system had managed to hit one of these planes. A day later, a headline in the Tehran Times read 'Iran downs 4th Israeli F-35'. "According to Tasnim news agency, the aircraft was identified by Iranian air defence systems stationed in the area and was successfully targeted with a precision-guided missile,' the article reads. These allegations aim to refute Israel's announcement of "full aerial superiority" in the early days of the attack. That declaration came after the Israeli army largely destroyed Iran's air defences, a stated objective of their military operation. 'There is no proof that Iran downed Israeli F-35s' However, for the time being, there is no proof confirming these claims. While anonymous sources apparently told the Tehran Times that Iran picked up debris from the F-35, the Iranian army hasn't shared any authenticated images, photos, or videos. No information was released about the identity of the pilot allegedly captured, though Iran claimed to have captured two. The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke with Janes Intelligence, a military analysis company that works with open-source data, which said that 'there is no evidence that Iran has shot down any Israeli F-35s'. Pierre Razoux, the academic director at the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies (FMES) and author of a study looking at 'the challenges of air superiority over the Middle East', is also sceptical about Iran's claims. He says that these losses are 'extremely unlikely, especially without photos. If it were true, Iran would be hurrying to unveil the photos'. Iran's air defence system: 'not the most modern' Several military experts interviewed agree with this assessment and say that it is unlikely that Iran's anti-aircraft defence systems could have reached the Israeli F-35s. "It's really hard to destroy an F-35 because it is made not to be detected,' says Jean-Christophe Noël, a former fighter pilot and a researcher with the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), highlighting that the F-35 is built for 'stealth'. "That doesn't mean that it is unstoppable,' he added. 'But it turns out that it is stealthy enough that Iran's surface-to-air missile batteries failed, batteries which are not the most modern.' Another expert agrees with this analysis. "To down a stealth aircraft, first you have to detect it in certain bands of frequency, then transmit its position to other radar to guide a missile: that requires a complex coordination that the Iranian army has not mastered, all the more so because Israel weakened its air defence system,' says Etienne Marcuz with the Fondation pour la recherche stratégique (Foundation for Strategic Research), who was interviewed by the fact-checking team of French daily Libération's CheckNews. While Israel has almost complete control of the Iranian airspace, the F-35s are protected against eventual attacks by the Iranian air fleet, which is also outdated compared to the Israeli army, according to these two experts. Against this information war backdrop, a number of fake images that apparently show downed F-35 planes have been circulating online. Accounts known to criticise Israel started to share images of debris they said came from an F-35 downed in the Iranian desert, starting on June 13. We ran these images through a reverse image search (see our handy guide to find out how you can do it, too) and discovered that the photos did indeed show a F-35 crash, but it took place in May 2024 in New Mexico in the United States, as shown by articles from the time. Accounts also circulated images taken from video games, claiming that they showed a downed F-35. A post in Arabic that garnered more than 6 million views on X used a clip from a video game uploaded to YouTube in May 2025. You can see the scene 34 seconds into the video when a fighter plane gets shot by anti-aircraft defence. Another photo that allegedly showed a downed F-35 was broadcast on Iranian television on June 14 and picked up by a number of pro-Iran accounts that shared it widely across social media, especially Facebook. However, this photo, which was likely generated by artificial intelligence, actually shows a fighter jet that doesn't have some of the characteristics of an Israeli F-35. The fins at the back of the plane, for example, seem to be facing the opposite direction to the F-35. Moreover, the symbol of the Israeli army – the Star of David – appears at the back of the jet in this image, though it is on the front of the Israeli F-35s. Moreover, the ground doesn't seem to be damaged at all, even though the plane is still on fire. Another image said to show an Israeli fighter jet crashed in the desert was also widely circulated and was even shared by a number of Arabic-language media outlets like Gaza Now, whose post was viewed more than two million times. However, a number of social media users mocked this image, which was likely generated by AI, because certain details such as the jet's engine don't match the real F-35, but the real issue is the size of the downed jet as compared to the people around it. It looks huge in the image, whereas in reality, an F-35 is only about 15 metres long and six metres wide.
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Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
Merz underlines Germany's support for Israel, calls for Gaza ceasefire
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered a wide-ranging government statement on Tuesday in which he said the country's "reason of state" is to defend Israel's existence, condemned Russia's attacks in Ukraine, and called for a ceasefire in Gaza. Addressing lawmakers in the Bundestag ahead of the NATO summit at The Hague, Merz said "we must never get used to the horrors of war", before going on to speak about Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, and the Israel-Iran conflict. Germany's chancellor said Israel "has a right to defend its existence and the safety of its citizens" against Iran, and that Germany's "reason of state is to defend the state of Israel in its existence". He also told parliament that Iran "must not have nuclear weapons". "Today, we hope that the actions of Israel and the US in the past few days will permanently dissuade Iran from continuing its destructive course," Merz said, referring to US President Donald Trump's decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend in a war that has now been raging for 12 days. Merz emphasised that the EU and the wider world are "threatened" by Iran's nuclear programme, and said Germany would undertake diplomatic efforts in a bid to stop the conflict with Israel. The German chancellor also promised to find a humanitarian solution to Israel's war in Gaza, and called for a ceasefire. "The moment has come to conclude a ceasefire for Gaza," he said. While Germany would continue to support Israel, it also will "critically question what goal Israel wants to achieve in the Gaza Strip", according to Merz. In his speech, Merz also condemned Russia's latest airstrikes on Ukraine and said that Moscow does not want peace. "Genuine, lasting peace requires a willingness for peace on all sides," he said. "Russia, on the other hand, has made it clear in a barbaric way with its new wave of attacks on the Ukrainian civilian population that it does not currently have this willingness for peace." Earlier on Tuesday, Germany's Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil vowed to lift the country's defence spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product in 2029. At the NATO summit at The Hague on Tuesday and Wednesday, member states are expected to agree to raise defence spending from 2% of GDP to 3.5%, plus another 1.5% for potentially defence-related infrastructure. Merz told lawmakers in his address that increasing defence spending and beefing up the country's military is vital to Germany's future. On the topic of domestic affairs, Merz promised to tackle migration and said that EU member states are united in the view that tariffs are damaging to the bloc. The European Commission is set to begin negotiations with the US on tariffs in July, and Merz stated that several options have been prepared in case the talks are not successful. "The EU and can and will defend its interests," Merz said, before adding that he believed the US has economic reasons to continue working with Germany and Europe.
