Fact Check: Iran captures 43 US soldiers? No, video clip is AI-generated

Hyderabad: According to a recent report by NBC news, US President Donald Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s civilian energy and water infrastructure if a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz is not reached soon.

Amid the escalations, a video surfaced online claiming to show that Iran captured 43 American soldiers at the Strait of Hormuz. The viral clip shows uniformed soldiers sitting in a row like hostages, with a group of armed men guarding them.

Several users shared the video on Facebook and X. One user who shared the video on X wrote, “Iran has captured 43 American soldiers at the Strait of Hormuz”. The post received over 200 views and more than six thousand 200 likes. (Archive)

But does the video actually show captured US soldiers by Iran?

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The viral clip is AI-generated and was falsely passed off as Iran capturing US soldiers.

Analysis of the video

We reviewed the video carefully and found a few anomalies suggestive of the usage of generative AI. The person who appears to give orders looks animated and artificial, common signs of generative AI.

The rifles change shape as guards move and appear distorted or merge into bodies.

What did the AI tools detect?

For further analysis, we uploaded the video to Hive Moderation’s AI content detector. The tool suggested the video is 62.4 per cent likely to be AI-generated.

We asked Google Gemini to check if the video was generated using Google AI tools. Gemini responded that the detection tools identified digital watermarks (SynthID) embedded in both the video and the audio tracks. It suggested that the video has been generated or significantly altered using Google’s AI models.

AI content detection tool Deepfake-O-Meter gave strong indicators suggesting that the video is AI-generated.

There are also no credible reports suggesting that Iran captured 43 US soldiers in the Strait of Hormuz.