Deutsche WellePolitics Iran Fact check: Verifying images of war in Iran Alima de Graaf March 6, 2026
As is often the case in times of war, huge amounts of content are being spread online about the US-Israel-Iran conflict. But not all of it is accurate. DW Fact check separates what is real from what is not.
https://p.dw.com/p/59uRn
Since the United States and Israel began launching air strikes against Iran on February 28, social media has been flooded with content claiming to show scenes from Tehran and other Iranian cities.
While some footage is real – especially that published by reputable, professional media organizations – some is misleading, recycled, taken out of context or artificially generated and simply fake.
DW Fact check examines several widely shared videos that users claim show events in Iran.
Tehran: Has the US explicitly dropped 2,000-pound bombs on the city?
Claim: Sharing a video in a post on X with 2.9 million views at the time of writing, one user claims that it shows the capital of Iran: Teheran. He states that the “US began dropping 2,000-pound bombs” on March 4 and that the administration “still says this is not a war.”
DW Fact check: Misleading
The US military confirmed on X that B-2 stealth bombers began striking Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs as early as February 28. The US started bombing Tehran from that date as well.
A reverse image search shows that the video does indeed show bombing in Tehran – despite several other posts claiming eroneously that the video shows Bagdad in 2003 or Beirut in 2020.
The user that first posted the video, as well as the London-based media outlet Iran International, both confirmed that it was taken close to Shariati Street in the Iranian, and therefore shows bombing in Tehran. The language being spoken in the video is Farsi (also known as Persian), the official language of Iran.
However, neither we nor the social media user in this claim can say with any certainty whether this video specifically shows “2,000-pound bombs” being dropped on Tehran, as claimed.
The claimed date is also incorrect. The video was originally shared on March 1 (see above) and therefore cannot show events on March 4. Clues that identify this as the original include the video being of a higher quality, a longer version and that it was the earliest posting we found online. The thread includes several videos from the same moment from different angles.
As for the claim that “the administration still says this is not a war,” this is correct. US President Donald Trump called the US actions in Iran “major combat operations,” but there has indeed not yet been any formal declaration of “war.”
In conclusion, some elements of this claim are true – but other aspects of it are incorrect, misleading or unproven.
Has Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral taken place?
Claim: One user on Facebook claims that a video shows a funeral procession for Iran’s late surpeme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The video has been watched over 90,000 times and was shared with the same claim on several other social media platforms (TikTok, X, Instagram).
DW Fact check: False
Khamenei was killed in the first wave of US-Israeli attacks. At the time of writing, an official funeral has not yet taken place. Indeed, it would be a major feat to organize such an event in such a short space of time, especially for a country at war.
The video does indeed show a funeral, but not Khamenei’s; rather, it shows the funeral of former Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and his likely successor Hashem Safieddine which took place on February 23, 2025.
By conducting reserve image searches with screenshots from the video, we found articles by news outlets with similar visuals.
The AFP news agency took more detailed photos of that funeral, in which we can identify the portraits of Nasrallah and Safieddine, as well as the flags of Hezbollah and Lebanon (circled in blue).
Has Khamenei’s son been killed?
Claim: In this post on X, a user claims that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s recently assassinated supreme leader, was also killed in US strikes in Tehran. The post has 2.6 million views at the time of writing.
DW Fact check: Unproven
Despite numerous reports suggesting that Mojtaba Khamenei may indeed be set to succeed his late father as supreme leader, this has not yet been confirmed. Indeed, DW Fact check has already debunked one deepfake claiming to show Mojtaba’s supposed inauguration address.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that any leader appointed by the Iranian regime to replace Khamenei would be an “unequivocal target for elimination.” However, there is as yet no evidence to suggest that Mojtaba has met this fate.
Were he to be killed, we would expect this to be publicly communicated by either the US, Israel or Iran. No formal statement of the sort has been made.
Who will lead Iran after death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?
Negin Jamshidi Fard and Niloofar Gholami contributed to this report.
Edited by Matt Ford
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