Old clip of attack on Iranian ship misrepresented as shooting incident on Indian vessels in Strait of Hormuz
- Published on April 24, 2026 at 06:47
- 2 min read
- By Hawon Jung, AFP South Korea
New Delhi lodged a protest with Iran after two Indian-flagged ships were reportedly fired upon in the Strait of Hormuz in April 2026, but footage circulating online does not show the vessels under attack. The video is several weeks old and was published in reports that say it shows a strike on an Iranian ship at Bandar Lengeh, a port city in southern Iran.
"The current situation at Hormuz. Two Indian oil tankers carrying oil from Iraq have been attacked by the Iranian forces at the Strait of Hormuz on April 18," reads a Korean-language post shared on X on April 19.
The clip shows two large ships sailing closely together at sea when a massive explosion erupts on one of them, sending thick plumes of smoke billowing into the sky.
The false claim surfaced elsewhere on X as India summoned Iran's ambassador to lodge a protest over a "shooting incident" involving two Indian-flagged ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Indian foreign ministry said in a statement on April 18 that Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri raised his concern over the "serious incident of firing on merchant ships", and urged Iran to allow ships sailing to India to pass through the strait safely (archived link).
Monitoring site TankerTrackers.com said in a post on X that "two Indian vessels were forced back west out of the Strait of Hormuz" by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy (archived link).
Indian TV station NDTV reported the two vessels were not damaged, citing sources (archived link).
Ship crossings through the Strait of Hormuz have fallen sharply since April 18 due to the blockades imposed by Iran and the United States, while security incidents involving vessels have multiplied, according to data compiled by AFP (archived link).
But the video does not show an attack on Indian ships.
Iranian warship
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip led to a video that Saudi state-owned broadcaster Al-Arabiya published on March 9 showing the same explosion, with a caption that it shows an Iranian vessel attacked by the United States and Israel (archived link).
AFP also distributed a video showing the same scene, with a caption that says it appears to show a strike on a vessel off Bandar Lengeh, a port city in Iran's Hormozgan province on the Persian Gulf.
AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the Iran war here.
Copyright © AFP 2017-2026. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
