Washington:
US President Donald Trump has shared two AI-generated videos on his Truth Social platform allegedly depicting the American military’s latest strikes on Iran. Trump also shared footage claiming it was showing the bombing of Iran’s Kharg Island, the Iranian oil hub he has threatened to seize or destroy multiple times since the war started.
The footage, generated using artificial intelligence, shows massive explosions in an oil storage tank and an oil tanker as an aircraft hovers over the scene.
“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT,” read a post. FOLLOW IRAN WAR LIVE UPDATES
Trump’s Truth Social posts came hours after the US military carried out air strikes on Iranian rocket launchers on Larak –a small island in the Strait of Hormuz — in its first attacks on Iran since late July. Washington said its attacks were aimed at preventing Iran from launching more sea mines into the strait, days after it announced it had completed clearing explosives from the strategic waterway.
“US forces took limited, precise action against IRGC (Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’) minelaying forces posing an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz,” the US Central Command wrote on X.
So far, there has been no report of any US strike on Kharg, as mentioned in Trump’s video. However, experts point out that it might be Trump’s way of intimidation. The US leader is known for sharing AI-generated content on his social media platforms, which is often a vast exaggeration of reality or has no relation to it.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile, said they have retaliated by attacking two US military air bases with ballistic missiles in Washington-allied Jordan, causing “heavy damage,” state media reported.
Jordan’s army said it had intercepted eight missiles, without stating their origin.
Tehran later said it has also targeted US military personnel at Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.
The island handled 90 per cent of Iran’s oil exports before the war started on February 28, making it a vital economic node. However, a US naval blockade has reportedly sharply curtailed Iran’s oil exports.
American officials told Axios that very few tankers have been spotted recently at Kharg Island, but oil from other nations is transiting the waterway through an alternative route along Oman.
The island sits 26 kilometers from Iran’s coast in the northern end of the Gulf, about 483 kilometers northwest of the Strait of Hormuz. It lies in waters deep enough to enable the docking of tankers that are too large to approach the Iranian mainland’s shallow coastal waters.
Any attack on the island would disrupt Iran’s energy trade and place enormous pressure on Tehran’s economy. Iran is the third-largest producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
