Video of distraught US soldier after Iranian attack is AI-generated
- Published on March 13, 2026 at 05:53
- 2 min read
- By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India
Iran lashed out with retaliatory missile and drone strikes across the Gulf after a US-Israeli attack on February 28, but video circulating on social media that purportedly shows a distraught US soldier in the remains of a building destroyed by an Iranian attack was created with the help of AI. The clip has visual errors indicative of synthetic content, and its audio was flagged by a detection tool as likely AI-generated.
"Teary-eyed American soldiers report that US embassies from Islamabad to Baghdad have been set on fire. Iran continues its rampage against US military bases in Tehran," reads the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook video shared on March 3, 2026.
The video, which has been viewed more than 250,000 times, appears to show a sobbing US soldier saying: "My [phone] screen is shattered, I can't even see my daughter's face anymore."
The video also circulated in similar Facebook, Instagram and X posts as Iran carried out missile and drone strikes against Israel and American targets in the Middle East in retaliation for a joint US-Israeli attack launched on February 28 that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (archived link).
Explosions have rung out in Dubai, Bahrain, Iraq and elsewhere, causing chaos with hundreds of flights cancelled and the strategic Strait of Hormuz all but paralysed.
At least 25 Iranian attacks have targeted US sites or locations housing US military personnel in the Middle East since the start of the war, according to an AFP analysis using satellite images (archived link).
Of these attacks, recorded between February 28 and March 11 at 1500 GMT, four targeted US embassies or consulates in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. The other 21 Iranian missiles or drone attacks targeted 13 different military sites housing American personnel.
But there have been no official reports, as of March 13 at 0200 GMT, of US embassies or facilities housing US military personnel being damaged to the extent seen in the circulating video (archived link). There have also been no official reports of US military bases in Iran's capital Tehran, or of US soldiers on the ground in the Islamic republic.
Errors and inconsistencies in the video indicate it was generated with the help of AI tools. The size of the soldier's phone is out of proportion, his movements and the flow of his tears are also unnatural.
Moreover, the American flag patches on the soldier's sleeves appear to contradict military guidance (archived link). The patch on his left sleeve shows the stars of the flag extending across the entire flag, rather than just in the upper-left quadrant.
An analysis of the video's audio using the Hiya voice-cloning detection tool, available on the Verification Plugin, also known as InVID-WeVerify, found it was "very likely AI-generated".
AFP has debunked a slew of misinformation stemming from the Middle East war.
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