Image of fire at US embassy in Saudi Arabia is AI-generated
- Published on March 11, 2026 at 09:11
- 2 min read
- By AFP Brazil
- Translation and adaptation Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand
The US embassy in Riyadh was attacked by two drones that sparked a small fire on March 3 as Iran pressed on with retaliatory strikes across the Gulf, but an image circulating on social media that purportedly shows the compound engulfed in flames after an Iranian drone strike is AI-generated. AFP photos of the embassy taken after the fire show minor damage to the compound, while a detection tool flagged the image as having been made with Google's AI tools.
"The US embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was attacked by Iranian drones," reads the Thai-language caption of a Facebook image shared on March 3, 2026.
The image shows a compound engulfed by flames and smoke, as firefighters attempt to put out the blaze.
It circulated after a Saudi defence ministry spokesman said an attack by two drones on the US embassy in Riyadh early on March 3 had sparked a small fire (archived link). The embassy later confirmed an attack on the facility and urged people to stay away.
The attack occurred as Iran retaliated over joint US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, with the conflict engulfing the otherwise stable Gulf region (archived link).
Iran's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, however, categorically denied that his country had targeted the US embassy (archived link). Alireza Enayati told AFP: "We confirmed that Iran has no role in the attack on the US embassy in Riyadh."
The same image was also shared in similar Facebook posts as well as in other languages on X, including English, Chinese and Hindi.
The United States ordered its embassy staff to leave Saudi Arabia on March 8, as Iran launched strikes at the kingdom in retaliation for the attacks by Washington and Israel (archived link). Besides the US embassy in Riyadh, drones have also caused damage to US embassies in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
But the image circulating on social media does not show damage caused by Iranian drones to the embassy in Riyadh.
An AFP photo of the embassy taken after it was hit by a drone strike shows superficial damage to the compound, contrary to the circulating image suggesting the entire facility was engulfed in flames.
Google Maps satellite imagery also shows the layout of the US embassy compound differs from how it is depicted in the falsely shared image (archived link).
An analysis using Google's SynthID detector -- launched by Google in May 2025 to identify AI-generated content -- found with a "very high" level of confidence that the image was created using the company's AI tools (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misleading claims stemming from the Middle East war.
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