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

Hyderabad: While tensions in West Asia are on the rise, Iran claimed that it has captured American soldiers alive.

On March 8, Ali Larijani, Iran’s top security official, claimed that American soldiers had been captured, accusing the USA of trying to conceal the incident.

“It has been reported to me that several American soldiers have been taken prisoner. 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,” he wrote on X.

Regarding this claim, a video is going viral with the claim that it shows the US soldiers captured by Iranian forces.

The video contains three clips; the first two clips show men in camouflage uniforms kneeling while other uniformed persons point guns at them. In these clips, we can see an Iranian flag as well as an image of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was reportedly killed on February 28 in joint US-Israel airstrikes on the country.

The third clip contains an image where US President Donald Trump can be seen in the White House surrounded by people who seem to be praying. Some bowed their heads, and others had their hands on the president in joint prayer.

Sharing the video on X, a user wrote, “Breaking News… The rats of America, who consider themselves the world’s greatest power, are on their knees before the Iranians. This is the power of Iran and Islam… #Iran #IranWar #IsraelIranConflict.” (Archive) (Translated from Hindi)

A post making similar claims can be seen here. (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The two video clips are AI-generated, and the image is unrelated to the claim.

What did the US say about Iran capturing its soldiers?

Following the remarks by Ali Larjani about the captured US soldiers, the US military quickly refuted the claims in its claims. An Al Jazeera English article, dated March 7, quoted US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins responding to Larijani’s post, saying, “The Iranian ⁠regime is ⁠doing everything it can to peddle lies and deceive. ‌This is yet another clear example.”

The report also said, “A spokesperson from US Central Command (CENTCOM) echoed Hawkins’s denial in a statement to Al Jazeera Arabic”.

This hinted that the video might have been artificially created.

We also couldn’t find the viral visuals associated with any credible news reports about Iran capturing US soldiers.

We analysed the viral video closely and found some visual discrepancies. The first video clip showed a man materialising out of thin air. It also shows two Iranian flags over the other at the beginning of the video. The second flag seems to disappear as the video progresses.

These are some usual signs of the presence of AI-generated content. To check whether the video contains AI-generated content, we used Sight Engine, an AI detection tool and found that the video is 84 per cent likely to be AI-generated.

Hive Moderation, another AI detection tool, confirmed that the viral video clips are 94.4 per cent likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.

US pastors pray over Donald Trump

A search for the image of the US President in the viral video led us to a video shared to Facebook by Reuters with the caption, “U.S. President Donald Trump joined a group of pastors in prayer in the Oval Office, as seen in video released on March 5.”

In the video, we can see some Christian Pastors ‘laying hands’ on Donald Trump and praying over him.

White House aide Margo Martin also posted a video of the incident to X on March 6 with the caption that stated that the US president had welcomed pastors ‘from across the country’ to the Oval Office.

The incident took place on March 5 and predates Larijani’s remarks about the captured US soldiers.

It is clear that the two clips showing captured soldiers kneeling are generated using AI and the third clip of Donald Trump in the Oval Office is unrelated to the viral claim.

Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral claim is false.