Does a video show U.S. troops captured in Iran? No, that's not true: An online AI video detection tool found that the clips of the U.S. soldiers are fake but are intermixed with a real clip of President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. The parts of the video with the troops contain a SynthID watermark indicating it was created or edited with Google AI tools and shows typical AI artifacts such as distorted faces, unnatural movements and shifting backgrounds.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on X on March 10, 2026. It said:
🚨 JUST IN:
Iran has released a video of captured U.S. soldiers...
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @lran_prees on X.com.)
This is a screenshot of the portion of the video showing the president in the Oval Office:
(Image source: post by @lran_prees on X.com.)
Conflict in the Middle East
The United States and Israel launched an ongoing military operation against Iran on Feb. 28, 2026, that killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an airstrike on his compound in Tehran. Iran has responded with drone and missile strikes against the U.S. and allied targets across the Middle East.
Video analysis
Lead Stories ran the video through Gemini (archived here), Google's AI assistant. It reached these conclusions:
Based on a visual analysis and digital verification, this video is a compilation of both real and AI-generated footage. It is not fully AI-generated, but the most dramatic scenes are fake.
Here is a breakdown of the real and fake parts:
AI-Generated (Fake) Parts
0:00-0:11 and 0:13-0:17: The clips showing groups of US soldiers kneeling in front of Iranian flags and a portrait of a leader (Ayatollah Khamenei) are AI-generated.
Visual Analysis: These segments show common AI artifacts, such as distorted faces, unnatural body movements, and 'fluid' background details.
Verification: A digital watermark (SynthID) was detected in these visuals, confirming they were created or edited with Google AI tools. Fact-checking organizations have also identified these specific images as part of a misinformation campaign.
Real Parts
0:11-0:13: The short clip of Donald Trump with several people laying hands on him in prayer is real footage.
Context: This video was filmed in the Oval Office during a March 2025 meeting between the President and a group of evangelical leaders. It has been used in this montage out of its original context.
Audio: The 'Allah Akbar' chanting and the laughing emoji are edits overlaid on the video.
You can watch the video here:
🚨 JUST IN:
-- Iran Mil Updates (@lran_prees) March 10, 2026
Iran has released a video of captured U.S. soldiers... pic.twitter.com/ITvJPEbc9W
A second tool, Hive Moderation AI-Generated Content Detection, confirmed the clip's mixed nature, with both fake and real video elements. It concluded the video was "likely to be NOT-AI-generated" with an aggregated score of 41.4%. The higher the score, the greater the AI content.
(Image source: Hive Moderation.)
