Photos show explosions in Tehran, not 'US military bases'
- Published on March 23, 2026 at 09:12
- 3 min read
- By Nyan Tun SHEIN, AFP Thailand
Iran has repeatedly struck US interests in Gulf nations as it retaliated against joint US-Israeli attacks on February 28, 2026 that triggered the region-wide war, but a series of photos shared in social media posts do not show the Islamic republic's assault. In fact, the photos depict the second day of airstrikes on Tehran.
"Iranian fighter jets bombed US military bases," reads part of a Burmese-language Facebook post published on March 1, 2026.
The post features five photos of large plumes of smoke issuing from buildings in a city.
The same photos spread across Facebook, Instagram and X in posts from users across the world.
The US and Israel jointly attacked Iran on February 28, 2026, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and plunging the Middle East into war (archived link).
Since then, Iran has kept up retaliatory attacks on Gulf nations it accuses of serving as a launchpad for US strikes.
On March 22, it threatened to attack key infrastructure across the Middle East if US President Donald Trump follows through on his vow to "obliterate" the Islamic republic's power plants unless the Strait of Hormuz swiftly reopens.
However, the photos shared online in fact show the US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found an a wider version of the first photo published by the Iran-based West Asia News Agency (WANA) on March 1, 2026 (archived link).
"Smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 1, 2026," reads the photo caption.
AFP reported sweeping United States and Israeli strikes on Tehran continued after the two countries began pummelling the Islamic republic the day before (archived link).
The photo was credited to Majid Asgaripour, a photographer based in Tehran (archived link).
The same photo was also published in a media report about airstrikes on March 1 in Tehran, credited to Asgaripour and Reuters news agency (archived link).
Further searches found the second photo was published by the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) alongside several other photos of the same explosion (archived link).
"Smoke rises in central Tehran after an Israeli attack in Iran, 01 March 2026," reads part of the photo's description.
The photo was credited to EPA photographer Abedin Taherkenareh.
The remaining three photos were published by AFP and also show the strikes on Tehran on March 1, credited to AFP photographer Atta Kenare.
"Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions in Tehran on March 1, 2026," the captions state.
The square building seen in the photos is the Cancer Institute in Tehran, which can be seen in a geotagged photo on Google Maps (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation stemming from the Middle East war.
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