Fact Check: Viral Photos Claiming Iran Captured US Soldiers Are AI-Generated
फागुन २८, २०८२ १६:५९
Kathmandu. In the past few days, posts claiming that Iranian soldiers have taken American soldiers hostage have been going viral on social media. Pictures showing American soldiers being handcuffed and kneeling in front of the Iranian soldiers with the Iranian flag have widely circulated.
However, TechPana’s Fact-Check desk found that the pictures were AI-generated. Iran has claimed that it captured some American soldiers during the war. However, the United States has stated that although some of its soldiers were killed and injured in the war, none of them are in Iran’s custody. The fact-check confirmed that the misinformation was spread using AI images at a time when it was unclear whether American soldiers were actually being held hostage in Iran.
Claim
A Facebook page named ‘Rajib Bhattarai’ published a post at 9:41 p.m. on February 7, claiming that the Iranian military had taken members of the US Army hostage. Through this post, the user expressed concern and questioned whether a similar situation could happen in Nepal.
He wrote, “The Iranian army has captured the American army. Hope this post reaches our Nepali army chief. What do you understand by looking at this picture? Your situation could be the same, so be alert. You might also remember the words of Swarnim Wagle, who urged the Nepali army to reduce its number of troops.” By the time this content was prepared, the post had received more than 6,000 reactions and over 320 comments. See the post, archive link, and screenshot.
Investigation
A Facebook page named ‘News Biratnagar’ also claimed that more than one hundred and fifty soldiers had been captured by the Iranian army. The post posted at 4:20 p.m. on March 7, reads,
“**Big International News** Iranian military has claimed to have taken control of about **150 soldiers, including several officers of US Special Forces ** With**Delta Force** According to Iranian government sources, those soldiers are alleged to be **involved in a secret operation targeting Iran’s missile related missions.**After the incident, Iran issued a stern warning: **“This is not Venezuela, this is Iran.”** According to analysts, this incident could potentially make **US-Iran relations more tense.** 👉 What is your opinion on this matter? Share your opinion by commenting.” (Translated)
See the original post, archive link, and screenshot.
We checked the pictures using Google Reverse image search. During the search, we found that an ‘X’ account named ‘Government of East Africa’ had publicly shared the same pictures. In the status of the picture posted on the morning of March 6, 11:10, it says, “#BreakingNews 🚨: The U.S. Delta Force paratroopers have been Captured by the Iranian 🇮🇷 Revolutionary Guard. The Iran 🇮🇷 Government says, @realDonaldTrump and @IsraeliPM 🇮🇱 H.E. @netanyahu pressed a wrong button, it's time to be showed a real Iran 🇮🇷. Delta Forces are in Custody” See the post, archive link, and screenshot.
It was also found that the X account ‘Umar Indian’ had shared the same picture. See the post, archive link, and screenshot.
An X account named ‘Iran Times’ was also found to have published the photo with the same claim. The photo released at 7:55 a.m. on March 6 has the text, “#Iran captures 180 #US landing Force personnel.” See the post, archive link, and screenshot.
Instagram user ‘mr.trt_4831’ has also made a similar claim. Sharing a post on March 6, he wrote in Hindi, “Ye hai America ke Delta Force Iran ko Palestine samajh kar ground jang karna chahte thye utarte hi giraftari hogyi bhayiya ye Iran hai halkay mein mat leyiyo😅..”
See the original post, archive link, and screenshot.
A Facebook user named ‘Sammy Colucci’ was also found to have posted the same claim along with a photo on March 8 at 1:02 p.m. The post also claimed that the Iranian army had captured the US Delta Force soldiers. See the post, archive link, and screenshot.
After posts claiming that the Iranian army had captured the US Delta Force went viral among social media users from Nepal and various other countries, we tried to search for official news about it. For this, we conducted a Google advance search using keywords such as ‘Irani army captures delta army,’ ‘Iran captures US Soldiers,’ ‘Iran US war soldiers captures,’ ‘US hostage Iran,’ among others. During this search, we found various news related to the war between Iran and the United States.
On March 7, the international media outlet Al Jazeera published news under the headline ‘Trump administration denies reports that Iran captured US soldiers.’
The news states, “Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council, claimed that his country has captured United States soldiers since the outbreak of war last week.” The comments came in a post on Saturday on the social media platform X, in which Larijani suggested the US was concealing the captures. “It has been reported to me that several American soldiers have been taken prisoner,” Larijani wrote. “But the Americans claim that they have been killed in action. Despite their futile efforts, the truth is not something they can hide for too long.”
The US military, however, quickly refuted the claims with its own statement.
“The Iranian regime is doing everything it can to peddle lies and deceive. This is yet another clear example,” said US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins in response to Larijani’s post.
A spokesperson from US Central Command (CENTCOM) echoed Hawkins’s denial in a statement to Al Jazeera Arabic. “The Iranian regime’s claims of capturing American soldiers are yet another example of its lies and deceptions,” the spokesman said.
At least six members of the US armed forces have been killed since the war began on February 28, after the US and Israel launched a joint attack. The administration of US President Donald Trump dubbed the military campaign “Operation Epic Fury”. Read the full news.
After finding the news that the Trump administration had denied the claim that the American army was in Iranian military custody, we suspected that the current viral image might be AI-generated.
After that, we tested various images with claims of the American army being captured using the AI detection tool ‘Hive Moderation.’ During the examination, it was concluded that these images were 80 to 99.9 percent AI-generated.
We also tried putting these pictures into the Google SynthID detection tool. Out of the three, it was concluded that two pictures were generated by Google AI.
Claim
Photos went viral, claiming that the Iranian Army had taken more than 150 American ‘Delta Force’ soldiers into custody.
Claimants
Facebook pages ‘Rajib Bhattarai’, ‘News Biratnagar’, X users ‘Government of East Africa’, ‘Umar Indian’, ‘Iran Times’, Instagram account ‘mr.trt_4831’, along with social media users.
Fact
The US administration and military officials have rejected claims that American soldiers were captured by the Iranian military. Although the deaths of six US soldiers have been confirmed since the start of ‘Operation Epic Fury’, there is no official information about anyone being taken prisoner. AI detection tools such as Hive Moderation and Google SynthID have shown that the viral images are AI-generated.
Conclusion
The images showing Iranian forces taking American soldiers hostage are AI-generated. Iran has claimed that it has captured some American soldiers during the war. However, the United States has stated that although some of its soldiers have been killed or injured during the war, none of its forces are in Iranian custody.
It has been confirmed by fact-checking that AI-generated images were used to spread misinformation at a time when it had not been confirmed whether American soldiers were in Iranian custody.
Feedback
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पछिल्लो अध्यावधिक: फागुन २८, २०८२ १६:५९
