Baseless posts about Iran strike on USS Abraham Lincoln share old clip
- Published on March 6, 2026 at 11:05
- 2 min read
- By Pierre MOUTOT, AFP France
- Translation and adaptation AFP Malaysia
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on March 1, 2026 they attacked the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after joint US and Israeli strikes killed the Islamic republic's supreme leader. The Pentagon denied Tehran's claim, while an online video apparently showing the carrier on fire is old and contains unrealistic visual elements that indicate it is not authentic.
"The biggest news on the Iran-America war is breaking. Iran has fired four ballistic missiles at the US warship 'USS Abraham Lincoln' stationed in the Arabian Sea!" reads sticker text on Facebook reel shared on March 4.
The Malay-language caption to the clip, which shows thick plumes of smoke rising from a burning ship, repeats the claim.
The video was shared on Facebook and Instagram in posts written in Burmese, French, Spanish and Arabic after Iran said it struck the USS Abraham Lincoln with ballistic missiles in the Gulf on March 1 (archived link).
The US Central Command refuted the claim, saying on X: "The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn't even come close" (archived link).
Iranian state TV similarly alleged on March 5 that drones fired by the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military, had struck the aircraft carrier. It did not provide any details on the claim (archived link).
War has raged in the Middle East following the US and Israeli strikes in Iran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (archived link).
Tehran retaliated by launching missile and drone attacks on multiple countries hosting some of the tens of thousands of US troops, notably in the Gulf Arab states.
The circulating clip, however, does not show the USS Abraham Lincoln being struck by Iranian missiles.
A reverse image search of keyframes on Google surfaced a Facebook post sharing the same clip on June 24, 2025.
Although the Arabic-language caption says the video shows a US aircraft carrier targeted by Iran at the time, visual inconsistencies suggest the clip is not genuine.
One portion of the vessel appears to be on fire but does not emit smoke, and the flames move in an unrealistic way as if they were digitally animated.
An analysis of the clip using the Hive Moderation detection tool found it was "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content" (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation stemming from the war in the Middle East.
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