Video filmed in South Korea misrepresented as US military helicopters over Iran
- Published on July 21, 2026 at 08:52
- 2 min read
- By Grace MOON, AFP South Korea
The United States launched fresh strikes against Iran in July 2026 in retaliation for attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, but a video circulating on social media does not show a squadron of US military helicopters flying into Iranian airspace as posts claim. AFP found that similar footage was previously shared online in October 2024, shortly after South Korea's annual Armed Forces Day ceremony, and geolocated the video to a building in Yongin, south of the capital Seoul.
"The situation in Iran now. It looks like Iran is in serious trouble," says the Korean-language caption of an X video shared on July 8.
The short video appears to show dozens of black helicopters flying in formation over a built-up area.
The video was also shared in similar YouTube and X posts after the United States said it had launched fresh strikes against Iran in retaliation for Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz (archived link). The strategic waterway remains a flashpoint in the Middle East war, which began in late February with massive US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
US Central Command said the latest strikes were aimed at "degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping" in the strait, where Tehran has repeatedly carried out attacks on civilian vessels (archived link).
During the week of July 6, the US military said it used "precision munitions launched by land- and sea-based fighter aircraft, drones and naval vessels" to hit Iranian military targets (archived link).
But there have been no official reports of the US military sending squadrons of helicopters into Iranian airspace (archived link).
The circulating video was in fact filmed in South Korea.
Old footage
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video found the same footage -- and stills from the clip -- that circulated online as early as October 2024, around the time South Korea held its 76th Armed Forces Day ceremony (archived here, here and here).
A post shared on Chinese video platform Bilibili on October 14, 2024 included a longer version of the circulating video, which revealed the building the helicopters appear to fly over has a Korean-language sign on its facade.
A keyword search found the sign matches the logo of a South Korean restaurant chain specialising in traditional fish soup (archived link).
Several videos filmed during the ceremony and rehearsals show similar helicopter formations (archived here and here).
AFP geolocated the building in the video to a location roughly 1.2 kilometres (0.7 miles) from one of the restaurant chain's stores in Yongin (archived link).
Experts at Cauth AI -- a member of the WITNESS Deepfake Rapid Response Force -- concluded the video was authentic and traced it back to posts shared in 2024 (archived here and here).
They added that, while the video resolution is low -- likely due to being filmed with a mobile phone or low-end camera -- it is "consistent with real-world, low-resolution footage" and does not contain any "glitchy" pixels or other manipulation artefacts indicative of AI generation.
AFP has previously fact-checked other false claims related to the Middle East war.
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