Old blast videos falsely depicted as US strikes on Iran

Published on June 24, 2025 at 10:58
4 min read
By Lucille SODIPE, AFP Philippines, AFP Thailand

Old explosion clips have resurfaced in posts that falsely portrayed them as depicting the unprecedented US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025. The United States joined ally Israel's military campaign against Tehran but one of the videos was filmed in Russia while the other has appeared in news reports about bombardment in Syria.

"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.

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!"

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).

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.

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).

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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