Claim: A video shows thick clouds of smoke arising from a nuclear explosion conducted by Iran.
Fact: The claim is false as the video does not depict any factual events or show any real nuclear explosion by Iran. It is likely from a video game simulation.
On 24 June 2025, a Facebook user published a reel with the caption,
ایران ایٹم بم دنیا کے سامنے لے آیا
[Translation: Iran has revealed its atomic bomb to the world.]
The video shows military personnel standing in a desert surrounded by mushroom clouds. The caption of the post implies that the video shows clouds of smoke arising from an atomic bomb explosion.
US Bombed Iran’s Nuclear Sites
On 21 June 2025, the United States Air Force and Navy attacked three Iranian nuclear sites, Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, in an operation called “Midnight Hammer“. The US officially joined the war with this attack as the escalations between Israel and Iran entered their second week.
US President Donald Trump warned that Tehran would face more devastating attacks if it did not agree to peace.
According to Reuters, a preliminary US intelligence assessment said that the airstrikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear capability completely but only set it back by a few months. The White House, however, denied this claim and called the intelligence assessment “flat out wrong.”
The Israeli Prime Minister also issued a statement reiterating the White House’s claims that the attack on Iran had removed the threat of nuclear annihilation, adding that Israel was determined to thwart any attempt by Iran to revive its weapons program.
Fact or Fiction?
To investigate, Soch Fact Check first conducted a keyword search, which did not yield any credible reports on a nuclear experiment or explosion conducted in Iran or anywhere near Iran by their military or government. If it was true, an event of this nature would have received wide coverage globally.
It is also important to note that the video itself contained several visual anomalies, including unnatural fumes and clouds, and people standing in close proximity to the site of a nuclear explosion.
A reverse-image search on the video keyframes led to a Facebook post by the page Bae Gamer from 24 June 2025, which revealed that the page posts video game simulations. It was evident at this point that the video does not represent real, factual events.
Furthermore, we found the same video on YouTube and Threads posted on 11 June 2025. The YouTube post contains the hashtag #arma3 in its caption, indicating that it is from the tactical shooter simulation video game ‘Arma 3’. The post on Threads states that the video is fictional and created for entertainment purposes only.
Soch Fact Check then took screenshots of the video’s keyframes and used an AI detection tool, Sightengine, to check whether it was AI-generated. The results from Sightengine showed that the video shows 48% manipulation, that it is likely AI-generated, and shows GPT 4.0 signs. GPT 4.0 refers to a multimodal large language model trained and created by OpenAI and the fourth in its series of GPT foundation models.
We also noticed a logo, @laughsores, on the video. A keyword search on Google led to a YouTube channel with the same name, where the same footage as the viral video was posted. The channel’s description states that it creates military combat AI videos.
Screenshot of YouTube channel with description
Thus, it is confirmed that the video does not represent any factual, real events, and, therefore, it does not show any nuclear explosion by Iran.
Virality
On Facebook, the AI-generated video received 41,000 likes, 4,100 shares and 362 comments. It was also shared here, here and here.
Conclusion: A video claiming to show Iran’s nuclear bomb is not authentic. It is likely from a video game simulation. More importantly, no credible evidence or news is suggesting that Iran conducted a nuclear explosion or revealed an atom bomb to the world recently.
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Background image in cover photo: Associated Press
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