Old photo and AI image falsely depicted as Russian troops in Tehran - Yahoo
A post circulating in Ethiopia falsely claimed Russian troops were sent to Tehran to support Iran, using an old photo from Chechnya and an AI-generated image.
- Incident date
- Apr 2026
- Target
- Iran
Ahead of a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East war, a social media post falsely claimed to show Russian troops arriving in Tehran to support Iran. The post, shared in Afaan Oromoo on April 5, 2026, used a combination of an old photograph and an AI-generated image to support its claims.
What happened
The post included two images. One was a real photo taken in 2022 in Chechnya. The other image, depicting a military convoy with Russian flags, was likely AI-generated. Indicators of AI generation included flagpoles without visible mounting brackets, inconsistencies in the trucks' grilles, misaligned headlights, and unnatural windshield wipers. Reverse image searches did not find a source for the convoy image, further suggesting AI generation. The claim, amplified by some users who believed it, surfaced days before a conditional ceasefire after escalating strikes between Iran, the United States, and Israel.