Old, Unrelated Image Passed off as Iran Putting Its Military on High Alert

We found that the viral image could be traced back to 2017 and has no connection with Iran.

Fact-Check | The image is old and is being shared with a misleading context.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image of several artillery guns lined up is being shared on the internet to claim that it shows a recent visual of Iran placing its military on high alert.

Social media users have shared the image with a caption that said, "#Iran has placed its entire military on full high alert. Donald Trump calls on Israel to end its war in Gaza. Because another genocide is coming, Iran and Israel will hit each other."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

The post had over 5 thousand views on the platform at the time of writing this report.

(More archives of similar claims can be viewed here, here, and here.)

Are these claims true?: No, the image is old and unrelated to Iran. It dates back to April 2017 and shows North Korea performing a live fire drill to mark the 85th founding anniversary of its military.

What led us to the truth?: On performing a reverse image search, we came across the same image shared in a report published by Cable News Network (CNN).

• The report talked about North Korea staging its largest ever military drill on the occasion of the founding of its army.

• A North Korean government official had told the media organisation that the drill involved around 300 artillery guns.

• The country's leader, Kim Jong Un, had given the order to start the demonstration, which showed self-propelled guns opening fire along the coast.

The report was published on 25 April 2017.

(Source: CNN/Screenshot)

Other sources: We performed a keyword search on Google and found a report published on Yonhap News Agency - an agency based in South Korea.

• It carried several images from the military drill, which showed the lined up artillery guns firing along the coast.

• Its caption, too, mentioned that these images display North Korea's largest-ever fire drill, which was performed on the 85th founding anniversary of the armed forces.

The images were uploaded on 26 April 2017.

(Source: Yonhap News Agency/Screenshot)

Iran-Israel tensions: According to recent reports, Israel had allegedly attacked Iran's consulate with missiles in Syria's Damascus. The attack resulted in the death of seven people including a senior commander and his deputy.

• Soon after this, Iran vowed retaliation for the attack on its consulate.

• This has further increased tensions in the region, which is already witnessing a war between Israel and Hamas.

Conclusion: It is clear that the viral image is old and has no connection with Iran.

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