Fact Check: Viral video does not show assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader, clips predate US-Israel airstrike
Fact Check: Viral video claiming Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israel missile strike is false. Investigation reveals that three of the four clips are AI-generated, while the remaining footage predates the alleged assassination.
As the war entered its fifth day on Wednesday, the United States and Israel stepped up airstrikes in Iran and Lebanon. In the new wave of strikes, a hotel near Beirut was bombed while the building of the Assembly of Experts in Qom city of Iran was destroyed. The combined death toll in both countries has surpassed 800.
The oil-rich Arab states are bearing the brunt of Tehran’s ferocious retaliation as these countries host US military assets. Iran is also targeting the American diplomatic missions in the Middle East, with the latest drone strike hitting the vicinity of the US consulate in Dubai on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, Iran has chosen its new Supreme Leader. With ultimate authority over state affairs, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is expected to lead the country in the difficult times.
Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran for over 40 years, died in a joint operation launched by the US and Israel on February 28, 2026 while he was presiding over a crucial meeting in Tehran.
In the midst of this, a video that purports to show Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei being killed in a US missile strike is going viral across social media platforms. The widely circulated content is a video compilation showing moments before the devastating explosions at some military facilities in Iran.
Several users have reshared the video (archive) captioned in Telugu “ఇరాన్ సుప్రీం నాయకుడు, అధినేత ఖమేనీని..అమెరికా మిస్సైల్ దాడిలో చంపిన వీడియో ఇదే.” (This is the video of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei being killed in a US missile strike.)
Sharing the same viral content, this account on Instagram has added a clarification in the description stating that, “no verified official video or confirmed CCTV footage has been released by credible international media or government sources showing the actual moment of death.”
While this X user claims the viral video shows the bombing of Iranian parliament.
The viral claim link is here and the archive link here.
Here’s the screenshot of the viral post.
Fact Check:
During the investigation, the Telugupost fact check team found that the viral video shows a compilation of four different locations and all these clips appear to have been captured by CCTV cameras installed at the military facilities. The investigation revealed that three out of four clips in the montage were generated by artificial intelligence while the fourth sequence shows the Israeli airstrike on an Iranian military command centre during the 12-day war and therefore, the video predates the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in February 2025.
Using an InVID tool, we extracted a few unique keyframes from the viral video and ran them through the Google Lens. We found a few clips sharing the same content in Dec 2025, claiming, “Islamist regime in Iran, just released videos showing its IRGC and other military sites being destroyed by Israel during the 12-day war. Similar claims posted here and here.
The viral video has a watermark @kaabusia and a simple Google Search led us to the original Instagram post here. The user’s profile states that he is against the Islamist regime of Iran and his posts are critical of the government.
Around the same time, we found a post on Instagram by a user @zshayeat. The profile description states that this is an “Anti-rumour” page. Sharing the viral content, the user wrote that the video is fake and some people have “taken advantage of a documentary video published in the national media and used artificial intelligence techniques to produce and publish false content.”
In the comment section, a user noted (in Persian) that, “the third clip was broadcast by the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation itself, and the army commander spoke about it.” [فیلم سومی رو خوده صدا سیما پخش کرد و فرمانده ی ارتش راجبش صحبت کرد.]
Taking a cue from this information, we performed a keyword search and found a detailed post by the senior BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh regarding the previous claim of IDF bombing Iran.
Responding to a “Mossad commentary” claim on X, Sardarizadeh wrote that, “Apart from the third clip, 10 to 15 seconds in and previously aired by Iranian state TV, the rest of the allegedly newly released CCTV clips in this montage of Israeli strikes on Iranian military sites from the 12-day war are AI-generated and fake.”
The 18-second video shows signs of possible AI-generated content. When we analysed the keyframes, we found several visual inconsistencies in the dramatic footage such as distortion, inconsistencies in the numbers shown on the digital clock, and broken headphones on the desk.
The old social media posts claimed that this is the CCTV footage. If that’s the case how the CCTV camera feed is in vertical video format (1080x1920).
Let’s analyse each segment from the four-clip video montage.
Sequence 1: In this segment, we see visual inconsistencies including a map of Mediterranean minus Cyprus, we see cabinets in the room without handles, the objects shown here have incorrect angles and hands on the desk with fingers typical of AI-generated content.
Sequence 2: A closer look at the video highlights certain signs such as the “threat board” on the wall displaying no meaningful data and interestingly the seating of the personnel is such that they cannot monitor the threat signals. The digital clock shows no proper time format and the numbers do not appear in Persian numerals. None of the personnel uniforms show Iranian rank insignia.
Sequence 4: Further analysis of the last segment brings out noticeable markers such as the CCTV cameras are focused on displays carrying sensitive information. The other visual inconsistencies include, clubbed fingers of the personnel, two personnel appear to have identical faces and the headset kept on the desk appears to be broken in a military command post.
We also found an article on The Jewish Chronicle reporting about the viral video showing how the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) soldiers are being blown by Israeli airstrikes.
According to the article, Kasra Aarabi, Director of IRGC Research, United Against Nuclear Iran, said that only one sequence in the video clip is authentic while the other sequences were AI-generated.
He stated that the airstrike hit the Tabriz air defence base, which is not an IRGC station but is run by the Artesh, the regular Iranian army.
"It was released in a documentary/interview with an Artesh commander, who was speaking about the bravery and commitment of the members of the Artesh,” Aarabi added.
You can find the intervie link on Telegram app here.
We then ran each of these sequence images on 'SightEngine', an AI-detection tool which detected 91%, 65% and 99% probability that the media is AI-generated for the first, second and fourth sequence images respectively.