Iran is Winning — According to Misleading Images and Videos

What’s happening: As the U.S. and Israel’s massive military attack on Iran enters its third day, social media users are sharing images and videos that misrepresent Iran’s counter-attacks, portraying the country as more powerful and menacing than verified evidence indicates.

The images and videos have collectively garnered more than 21.9 million views on the social media platform X, NewsGuard determined.

Context: On Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran with the objective of “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” according to President Donald Trump. The operation followed weeks of escalating tensions amid U.S.-Iranian negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. The strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking Iranian officials, prompting Iran to launch drone and missile attacks against Israel- and U.S.-linked targets across the region.

A closer look: Against this backdrop, pro-Iran social media users circulated misrepresented media that exaggerated Iran’s military strength and ability to mount a counter-offensive. In addition to blatantly false claims about senior U.S. and Israeli officials being killed or issuing statements praising Iran’s resilience, NewsGuard has identified three significant instances of visuals being falsely used to portray supposedly successful Iranian strikes on U.S. and Israeli assets.

USS Abraham Lincoln: Pro-Iran social media users are sharing an image supposedly showing the USS Abraham Lincoln sinking after being struck by an Iranian missile.

 

• Peter Salasya, a member of the Kenyan Parliament, posted the image on X and stated, “BREAKING: Missile Strike on USS Abraham Lincoln in Arabian Sea.” The post received 5.6 million views and 22,000 likes in one day. (Salasya did not respond to NewsGuard’s request for comment.)
• Facebook account “World News” posted the image on March 1 with the caption, “Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claims it launched four missiles at the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in the Arabian Sea today.” The post garnered 9,700 reactions and 981 comments in one day.

Actually: The image appeared in a July 2013 post on transportation blogging site 914world.com, with no description of what it showed, and has been included in many articles about aircraft carriers since then, according to a NewsGuard reverse image search.

• The image appears to show the intentional sinking of the decommissioned USS Oriskany in the Gulf of Mexico in May 2006 to create an artificial reef, NewsGuard found by comparing it to similar images of the event.
• U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, stated in a March 1 X post that Iran’s claim to have hit the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier was a “lie,” adding: “The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft in support of CENTCOM’s relentless campaign to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime.”

Israeli nuclear plant: Anti-Israel accounts shared a video of a large explosion and a cloud of smoke, claiming that it showed an Iranian attack against the Dimona nuclear facility in southern Israel, home to the Negev Nuclear Research Center.

You can watch the video here:

• X user @Jvnior posted the video on March 1 and stated, “Israel’s reactor and nuclear facilities were attacked by Fatah and Khyber missiles.” The post garnered 1.6 million views and 16,000 likes in two days.
• The claim appears to have emerged earlier that day by anti-Israel X user @secular_d, who posted the video and said in Persian, “Israel’s nuclear reactor and facilities were targeted by Fattah and Khyber missiles.” The post received 686,000 views and 5,100 likes in two days.

Actually: The footage in question is of a March 2017 fire at an ammunition depot in Balakliya, Ukraine, NewsGuard determined from a reverse image search.

• NewsGuard did not find any credible news reports or statements by Israeli or Iranian authorities that the Dimona nuclear facility, or any nuclear facility, was targeted in Iranian strikes.

CIA “headquarters” in Dubai: Pro-Iran accounts are sharing a video purportedly showing a CIA building in Dubai on fire after an Iranian missile struck the building.

You can watch the video here:

• Pro-Iran X user @Partisangirl posted the video on March 1 and stated: “Footage of CIA headquarters in Dubai targeted this morning by Iran, have emerged. UAE is arresting those releasing the footage. But they can’t hide this.” The post garnered 3.9 million views and 43,000 likes in one day.
• Right-wing Indian TV channel Republic World posted the video on YouTube with the title “Iranian Missiles Lock In US’ CIA Headquarters in Dubai | BREAKING” on March 1. The video received 337,000 views and 615 comments in one day.

Actually: The video shows a fire at a residential tower in the United Arab Emirates city of Sharjah on Oct. 1, 2015, NewsGuard found through a reverse image search.

• There are no credible reports that a CIA building was targeted in Dubai. Indeed, there is no publicly available evidence that the CIA has its own building in Dubai. In other countries, the CIA is believed to operate out of State Department facilities, such as embassies.

Zooming out: This is not the first time out-of-context visuals have been cited by misinformers in the midst of major geopolitical conflicts.

• Just two days after the January 2026 capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, NewsGuard identified five fabricated and out-of-context still images and two misrepresented videos that collectively generated more than 14.1 million views on X alone.

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In Case You Missed It … Russian Influence Campaign Shifts to Target Ukraine’s European Allies Funding its Defense

A Russian influence operation has shifted its strategy over the past year not only to spread false claims about Ukraine, but increasingly to direct disparaging narratives at French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. It’s an apparent effort to discredit two of Ukraine’s staunchest allies as they move in to fill the near-total reduction in U.S. financial support for Ukraine.

At the fourth anniversary of Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a NewsGuard review found that Storm-1516 — the Russian influence operation reported to be an offshoot of Russia’s Internet Research Agency troll farm — published 34 false claims targeting the two European countries since January 2025, advanced in 175,000 posts and articles, and drew 274 million views on X alone. This tally includes four claims advanced so far in 2026 that generated 29 million views, indicating that the effort shows no sign of slowing down. In 2024, just 12 claims targeted France and Germany.

Read the full report here.

This newsletter was edited by Sofia Rubinson and Eric Effron.

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