Fact check: Viral image of Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s body in airstrike’s rubble is AI-generated
Multiple users and accounts on social media platforms X and Facebook on March 1 were sharing an alleged image of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s body under rubble after he was assassinated in airstrikes by the United States and Israel. However, the image is AI-generated.
Khamenei, who ruled the Islamic Republic for over 30 years, was assassinated in a strike in the early hours of Sunday, by the US and Israel — the two countries that had been calling for regime change in Tehran.
Iran called the strikes “unprovoked and illegal”, responding with missiles fired at Israel and at least seven other countries, including Gulf states that host US bases, while vowing revenge for Khamenei’s assassination.
On March 1, a pro-Iranian user, based on his profile picture and past posts, shared a picture of Khamenei under rubble on X with the following caption: “My leader gave up his life, but the Muslim nation did not compromise or sell out the followers of Imam Hussain.”
The post gained 4.8 million views and was liked by 30,000 users.
The same picture was shared by another pro-Iranian user in the same context. The post was captioned: “My dear leader, my life be sacrificed for you”
The post gained 2m views while 16,000 users liked the post.
Another user also shared the same image with the following caption: “Iran releases image of Khamenei’s body beneath rubble.”
The post gained 4.6m views.
An Indian National Congress supporter also shared the image with a similar claim with the following caption: “Salute to the martyrdom of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sahib! May Allah bestow forgiveness”
The post garnered 340,000 views.
A Pakistani account also shared the same image with the following caption: “The intelligence was so solid that a photo of Imam Khomeini’s body was even delivered to the Israeli Prime Minister. Internal enemies are always the most dangerous; it’s a lesson for Pakistan.”
The post gained 170,000 views.
Multiple international digital media outlets, such as Antikor, Ahdaath net, Our Islam 24, Harianaceh, Gelora, Andhraj Yothy, Dosja, Face News, Punjab Kesari, Al Wafd news and Dimpe News also shared the same image with a similar claim on their websites.
The same image with a similar claim was further shared on X as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here; collectively gaining more than 400,000 views.
It was also circulated on LinkedIn and Facebook, as can be seen here, here, here, here and here.
Separately, a pro-Iranian user, based on his profile picture and past posts, shared a different image that allegedly showed Khamenei’s body on a bed with the following caption: “Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s dead body”.
The post gained 400,000 views.
A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in the matter of the Iranian supreme leader’s assassination.
A keyword search was conducted to corroborate whether any credible and mainstream international or Iranian news outlets had shared or reported the image, but yielded no results.
Inspecting the image, a rescue worker can be seen standing directly on the rubble over Khamenei’s alleged body, an atypical scenario to real-life rescue or recovery operations, which proceed cautiously to retrieve the injured and the dead.
A forensic analysis of the image through AI-detection tools showed that multiple tools, such as Undetectable.ai, AI or Not, Sightengine, Hive Moderation, and Truth Scan, flagged it as AI-generated.
Analysing the image using Google Gemini’s SynthID further indicated that most of the image had been edited or generated using Google’s AI tools.
As for the second picture, where Khamenei can be seen on a bed, a reverse image search yielded the same visuals shared by Euro News in a September 8, 2014, YouTube video with the following title: “Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ‘successful’ prostate surgery”.
According to the video description, Khamenei had successfully undergone prostate surgery. The same news with similar visuals was covered by multiple other international media outlets such as BBC, Al-Arabiya English and Mashregh News.
Therefore, the claim that a viral image shows Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s body found from the rubble of a coordinated US-Israeli airstrike is false.
This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ-IBA and UNDP.