Old photos recirculated to falsely claim 'Iranian attacks on US military in Syria' in April 2023

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on April 24, 2023 at 10:20
  • 3 min read
  • By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong

Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.

Two photos of burning vehicles have been shared more than a thousand times in social media posts that falsely claim they show "US military vehicles attacked by Iranian drones in Syria on April 8, 2023". The photos were in fact related to incidents in Nigeria and Iraq respectively. AFP found no credible reports to show there was an attack on the US military in Syria on the day as claimed in the posts.

Two photos of burning vehicles were shared here on Weibo on April 9.

"Yesterday a convoy of more than 60 US military vehicles that were stealing oil from Syria under protection by six armoured vehicles was attacked by more than 40 Iranian kamikaze unmanned drones in the Syrian border area," reads a caption of the photos in part written in simplified Chinese.


Screenshot of the false Weibo post, captured on April 24, 2023.

The post surfaced after Tehran condemned US airstrikes on Iran-linked forces in Syria that reportedly killed 19 people in March (archived link). Washington said it carried out the strikes following a deadly drone attack on US forces.

The same photos alongside similar claims were also shared on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok's Chinese version Douyin and Chinese news forums NetEase and Toutiao.

However, the claim is false. One of the pictures in the misleading post was taken in Nigeria in 2010 while the other showed the aftermath of an attack on a convoy of military fuel trucks in Iraq in 2007.

Fuel truck crash

A reverse image search on Google revealed one of the photos was taken and published by AFP on September 5, 2010 (archived link).

The caption of the photo reads in part: "Fire rages on three fuel tankers and eleven cars at Ibafo Town on Lagos Ibadan highway on September 5, 2010."

Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the misleading posts (left) and the original photo published by AFP (right):


Screenshot comparison of the pictures shared in the false Weibo post (left) and on AFP's archive (right).

AFP reported more than a dozen vehicles including two minibuses caught fire after three fuel tankers collided with a car in Nigeria, killing at least one person.

Attack on fuel convoy in Iraq

A combination of keywords and reverse image search found the other photo published as part of a picture collage by Reuters (archived link).

The caption of the photo reads in part: "Firemen hose down a burning fuel truck after it was attacked by gunmen in Basra, May 2007."

Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in misleading posts (left) and the original photo published by Reuters (right):


Screenshot comparison of the pictures shared in the false Weibo post (left) and on Reuters' gallery (right).

This photo was taken reportedly during a gun battle that took place in Iraq in 2007 (archived link).

On May 21, 2007, a British soldier was hit during a skirmish that followed the insurgent ambush on an oil supply convoy and later died of his wounds in the southern Iraqi city of Basra (archived link).

AFP found no credible reports to show that there were Iran-led drone attacks on US military forces in Syria in April 2023.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

Contact us

Next article Previous article