16-05-2025
India-Pakistan conflict: AI-generated or edited fake satellite images flood social media
The weapons have fallen silent but the image war rages on. From May 6 to 10, India and Pakistan engaged in military clashes following a deadly attack on Hindu tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22. Pakistan claims to have destroyed several pieces of equipment at Indian military bases, but India denounces disinformation and says it successfully hit Pakistani military installations.
On X, Pakistani and Indian internet users have been sharing alleged satellite images to illustrate the damage purportedly inflicted by their respective armies. But several of these images are fake.
An AI-enhanced hangar photo
On May 12, an Indian account posted a satellite image on X supposedly showing the aftermath of an Indian strike. The remarkably clear image prompted admiration. 'The picture is so sharp that it looks like it was taken with a drone. Indian satellites are very powerful,' a Facebook account commented.
According to another commenter, the photo allegedly shows a hangar at Pakistan's Bholari airbase destroyed by the Indian military.
But this photo is partly fake: it has been altered by artificial intelligence.
Thanks to a reverse image search (click here to find out how), we were able to find the origin of this image on a Reddit forum. The user who shared the image confirms that AI was used to enhance a satellite image of the strike.
A hangar at Pakistan's Bholari airbase was indeed partially damaged. Our team obtained a satellite image showing the base on May 11 from Maxar. This image shows damage to the hangar's roof. However, this satellite image has notable differences compared to the photograph shared on X, which confirms that the latter was generated by AI.
Compared to the original photograph, the image shared on X shows several inconsistencies. A low wall located on the left side of the hangar has disappeared, and the roof patterns do not match. The roof strips are arranged horizontally on the left side, while they are positioned vertically on the right side. In the image provided by Maxar, the hangar is visible from a distance. The AI-generated image, on the other hand, is a close-up of the hangar, likely in an attempt to show the damage caused by the Indian strike in a more dramatic way.
Fake craters at Jammu base in India
On May 11, a pro-Pakistan online user posted a satellite image purportedly showing damage caused by Pakistani forces on India's Jammu airbase, in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir.
This image was supposedly taken after Pakistani strikes. It depicts a series of six craters on the airport's runway and adjacent buildings.
However, the open-source intelligence analyst Aurora Intel showed how this satellite image has been graphically altered to add damage.
An image taken on May 11 by the Sentinel-2 satellite shows that the Indian airbase is actually intact. None of the six craters visible in the image shared on X appear on the Sentinel-2 image, which was taken the day after the alleged Pakistani strikes.
Destruction of Indian S-400 missile battery? Image is doctored
Following the alleged loss of one or several Rafale fighter jets, India has allegedly lost another piece of advanced military equipment: a battery of the S-400 missile, the Indian army's most sophisticated air defence system. This claim comes from pro-Pakistan internet users who posted a satellite image of India's Adampur airbase in Punjab.
Two craters can be seen in this image, which garnered over a million views on X. These craters are being presented as proof of the battery's destruction.
As open-source intelligence Damien Symon points out, the satellite image has been doctored. No sign of a crater is visible on an image of the Adampur base taken by the Sentinel-2 satellite on May 11, after the ceasefire.
The Pakistani army has officially claimed the destruction of an S-400 missile battery in Adampur. However, satellite images presented during a briefing on May 12 show no visible signs of damage. For his part, the Indian government press service stated that Pakistan's claim was 'fake' and 'baseless'.
On May 13, the Indian government released a video of a speech held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Adampur base. In the background, the intact tubes of an S-400 missile launcher can be seen.
A number of Indian media outlets have presented this video as sufficient proof to invalidate Pakistani claims. However, accounts supporting the Pakistani army have countered that this presentation of the facts was misleading.
They argue that the Pakistani forces never claimed to have destroyed the S-400 missiles themselves, but only their radars. So far, however, the Pakistani government has provided no visual and independently verifiable evidence of any such destruction.
