Old fire videos misrepresented as US strikes on Iran
- Published on July 14, 2026 at 18:37
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
A video of a skyscraper engulfed in flames spread across social media in July 2026, with numerous posts claiming it showed a US strike on a key Tehran facility for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as the United States and Iran traded attacks at levels not seen since reaching a ceasefire in April. But the footage is years-old, showing a massive September 2022 fire that enveloped a 42-story building in the Chinese city of Changsha.
"U.S. forces struck the main headquarters of the IRGC-affiliated Safar Allah forces in Tehran. The headquarters is on fire, marking a major escalation in the conflict," said a July 13, 2026 post sharing the video on X.
Similar posts spread across X and other platforms, including Facebook, circulating in multiple languages as hostilities between the United States and Iran flared in July.
US President Donald Trump declared July 13 that he would impose a naval blockade on Iranian ports and hefty fees on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, while the Iranian military command insisted it would not allow the United States to interfere in the management of the strait.
The competing claims over the vital waterway -- which allowed vessels to cross freely before war broke out in February -- came as fighting surged to a scale unseen since the implementation of an April ceasefire.
At least 28 people have been killed in Iran since hostilities resumed, according to an AFP tally based on Iranian announcements. The US strikes included an attack on military headquarters near Bushehr, Iranian state media reported July 9.
But the clip claimed online to show a blast to an IRGC military headquarters in Tehran is unrelated.
Reverse image searches found the same video circulating online as early as September 16, 2022, when it appeared in social media posts, online forums and media reports detailing a fire at a high-rise building in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province in south-central China (archived here, here and here).
AFP could not independently verify who captured the footage.
The skyscraper housed an office of the state-owned telecommunications company China Telecom, AFP reported at the time. The provincial fire department and China Telecom later said the inferno had been extinguished with no casualties discovered.
News organizations including the BBC, the Guardian and CNN published similar footage of the building searing in flames (archived here, here and here).
Stock photos of the building further confirm the location (archived here and here).
Hong Kong fire in 2025
Additional social media posts similarly misrepresented a second video -- depicting high-rise buildings on fire at night -- as a shot of Iran's military headquarters.
"JUST IN: The IRGC Headquarters in Tehran, Iran has been OBLITERATED - burning uncontrollably after U.S. strikes," said one July 12, 2026 post on X.
But AFP previously determined that the footage is from a deadly fire that burned through a Hong Kong housing complex on November 26, 2025.
Reverse image searches found the same clip published by the Hong Kong outlet Inmedia (archived here).
Google Maps Street View imagery from the area, meanwhile, shows the same buildings and road signs, corroborating the location (archived here).
The fire killed 168 people -- making it the deadliest residential building fire globally since 1980 -- as it engulfed seven out of eight residential towers in the complex, which were undergoing renovations and wrapped in substandard netting that may have contributed to its spread. A criminal investigation followed.
AFP also captured photos of the blaze (archived here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation about Iran 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
