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By Ines Chomnalez and Waqar Rizvi
What’s happening: Pro-Iran accounts are sharing a video of an exploding ship in the Strait of Hormuz to make two contradictory false claims: that the video depicts the Iranian navy sinking a U.S. ship in the Strait of Hormuz, and that it shows Iran heavily damaging an Indian ship in the strait.
In fact, the video shows a U.S. strike on an Iranian warship.
Context: Since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28, 2026, U.S. and Israeli operations have sunk more than 155 Iranian naval vessels, according to news reports and official statements.
On April 13, after the first round of peace talks between the U.S. and Iran collapsed, President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes.
A closer look: On April 9, four days before the U.S. blockade began, pro-Iran social media users began sharing a video showing a ship engulfed in smoke and flames that they described as the Iranian...
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran had agreed not to execute eight women protesters, while Iranian officials and the judiciary denied any such executions had been planned and des...