Footage circulating on TikTok and YouTube on Monday morning claims to show an American B-2 stealth bomber being shot down over Iran during the US bombing raid on the Iranian nuclear facility at Fordo over the weekend. The video accrued over 70,000 views on a TikTok channel that has posted a dozen other clearly AI-generated videos before being deleted.

Rating

False Both the footage and the claim are fake. Aside from the fact that the Pentagon officially confirmed on Sunday that all seven B-2s and their crews had returned safely, with major international news outlets including the BBC, CBS and The Associated Press carrying footage of their return, there are several aspects of the social media video which reveal it to be manipulated. A reverse image search for various screenshots revealed that the same footage had earlier been uploaded to a YouTube channel along with the claim: "Iran shoots down US B-2 plane." A disclaimer, points out that the content is "altered or synthetic." Other reverse image search results lead to a different video in which the zig-zagging flightpath taken by an anti-aircraft missile appears to be identical to that taken by the missile in the original video. This video featured a disclaimer pointing out: "This video is gaming footage, just for fun." Indeed, a closer look at the original frames suggests that the air-defense system firing the missile is positioned on animated terrain and in a landscape which doesn't reflect the reality of what we know about the raid on Fordo. That raid took place in a mountainous location, not a grassy field, in the middle of the night, local time, not during daylight.

Reviewed by Deutsche Welle ↗ · June 24, 2025