Video of oil tanker blaze in Gulf of Oman falsely linked to Iran war
- Published on March 16, 2026 at 08:35
- 2 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
Iran has effectively closed the critical Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for a joint US-Israeli attack on February 28, but video purportedly showing an American tanker struck by an Iranian missile as it traversed the waterway that is circulating on social media predates the conflict. It previously circulated in reports from June 2025 about a collision between two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
"This is one of the US oil tankers that was hit by an Iranian missile in the Strait of Hormuz," reads part of the Indonesian-language caption of a Facebook video shared on March 6, 2026.
Two weeks into the Middle East war triggered by a joint US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, traffic through the vital waterway that normally carries one fifth of global oil supplies has come to a virtual halt, as Tehran threatened to strike oil tankers in the strait (archived link).
Twenty oil tankers and cargo ships have been attacked since the war began, with only 77 vessels making it through the Strait of Hormuz, maritime data firm Lloyd's List Intelligence reported on March 13 (archived link).
US President Donald Trump has urged other nations to help secure the Strait of Hormuz after earlier vowing that the US Navy would "very soon" begin escorting tankers through the conduit.
The video of the tanker on fire also circulated on TikTok and Facebook, but it is unrelated to the Middle East war.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to an X post that shared the same footage on June 17, 2025 (archived link).
The post says the video shows the oil tanker Adalynn ablaze after colliding with another tanker in the Gulf of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz. The name of the ship is also written on the back of the burning vessel.
The same video also circulated elsewhere on shipping news sites and social media posts at the time (archived here and here).
AFP reported on June 17, 2025 that 24 people were rescued by the United Arab Emirates coast guard after the oil tankers Adalynn and Front Eagle collided in the Gulf of Oman (archived link).
The report cites British shipping company Frontline, which owns Front Eagle, as saying: "We are (also) aware of reports of a fire onboard the Adalynn following the collision."
The environmental organisation Greenpeace and the Ukrainian government website Warsanctions listed the Adalynn as part of a so-called "shadow fleet" of tankers used to evade sanctions on Russian oil (archived here, here and here).
AFP previously debunked the same claim in French, and has fact-checked other misinformation stemming from the war in the Middle East.
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