False image of missile strike on U.S. troops shared by Iran outlet

An Iranian news agency tweeted a photo claiming it showed U.S. planes on fire this week after Iran launched missile strikes. The photo in the tweet and linked story, however, is from November, involves Israeli strikes, and doesn’t show U.S. planes on fire.

Islamic Republic News Agency, which calls itself the official news agency of Iran, on Jan. 7 tweeted the image and text that said: "US planes in fire after #Iran's missile attack: Source http://bit.ly/39P6gnq #IranvsUSA #Solemani #IranAttacks #AinAssad."

The photo in the tweet also appeared in the linked news story. But the photo actually shows the impact of a Nov. 15, 2019, Israeli missile strike in the Gaza Strip. BBC in November used that photo in a news story and credited it to the AFP.

Getty Images’ caption for the photo in part says: "A ball of fire is seen following an Israel airstrike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip early on November 15, 2019." Getty credits the image to Abed Rahim Khatib/AFP.

Featured Fact-check

Facebook posts

stated on April 1, 2024 in a Facebook post

It’s a sign of war that the U.S. Navy is assisting the U.S. Coast Guard in cleaning up Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge site.

Some Twitter users replied to the news agency’s tweet, questioning why it was recycling the old image and noting that it was from November. Other Twitter users more broadly claimed that "Iran’s online operatives" were re-using old pictures.

This is not the only case of old images being repurposed and falsely labeled as showing the most recent air strikes against U.S. military. Our reporting found that additional images and videos of older missile strikes by Iran and Israel were also shared widely on Facebook, falsely identified as being from this week’s Iranian strikes.

The Islamic Republic News Agency shared an image on Twitter giving the inaccurate impression that it showed U.S. planes on fire after Iranian strikes this week.

We rate the claim False.