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By Lea Marchl and Miranda Wollen
What’s happening: Iran has found a way to claim military successes that it never actually achieves: Announce a bombing target and then let misinformers do the rest. On at least three occasions before a ceasefire was declared on April 7, pro-Iran accounts falsely declared that Iranian missiles had struck various sites after Iran announced that it intended to take them out.
Targeting a nuclear plant: On March 5, Iran announced that it would target Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility if the U.S. and Israel pursued regime change in the Islamic Republic. Starting the next day, anti-Israel users shared a video of three cooling towers engulfed in flames, claiming in English- and Arabic-language posts that Iranian missiles had struck the facility.
Anti-Israel, South Asia-based X account @RealWestern2003 shared the video and stated in English, “BREAKING: Jordanian believes the Iranian missiles have successfully struck Israel’s Dimona Nuclear Reactor.” The post received 2.8 million views and 16,000 likes.
Actually: There are no credible reports that Iran struck the Dimona nuclear facility, or any other Israeli nuclear facility.
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