Claim: A video shows Iran striking a US aircraft carrier early in March 2026.
Fact: The video is old and appeared online as early as June 2025; it is not linked to the recent war. Furthermore, fact-checking publications like AFP and Lead Stories concluded that the video is likely not real.
Early in March 2026, multiple Facebook users shared a clip purportedly showing Iran striking a US vessel amid the recent US-Israel war with Iran. One such post states [translated from English to Urdu]: “Latest News Iranian media claims to have targeted a US aircraft carrier in the Red Sea…”
Screenshot of the Facebook post.
Another post from 1 March claimed it showed [translated from Sindhi into English via Google Translate]: “Iran claims USS Abraham Lincoln was attacked with 4 ballistic missiles”.
Amid unverified reports of Iran targeting US Navy ships and specific air carriers during the war, a notable claim about the USS Abraham Lincoln getting struck also emerged, which was then rejected by the US Central Command.
Furthermore, Soch Fact Check previously debunked other posts claiming to show the Iranian Navy targeting a US Navy vessel in the Indian Ocean in March 2026.
This article only fact-checks the clip that surfaced at that time.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the clip and found that the video previously circulated with a similar claim in June 2025 amid the 12 Day War between Iran, Israel, and the US.
Reverse-searches first led to a fact-check by Lead Stories, a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which debunked the same clip in an article on 1 March 2026, titled “Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show U.S. Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln On Fire After Iran Missile Attack — Old Game Video” on 1 March 2026.
The publication found that the video was previously shared amid the 12 Day War between Israel and Iran, and stated that it seemed to have been generated by the Arma 3 video game.
The article added that they hadn’t been able to find its actual origin, stating:
“While we know the video of the burning ship is not real, we can’t conclusively determine its source. One possibility is it was created on the Arma 3 military simulation game. The developers at Bohemia Interactive, the studio that produced Arma 3, acknowledged the challenge of telling real war video from fake game images. They shared tips on how to tell if it is fake in a blog (archived here) titled ‘Arma 3 footage being used as Fake News.’”
Soch Fact Check then reviewed the post that Lead Stories found, apparently from 23 June 2025, archived by Wayback Machine, but has since been removed or deleted on Facebook.
Screenshot of the archived post on Way Back Machine found by Lead Stories.
To confirm whether the clip above was indeed from June 2025, a search was conducted using the caption from the archived post. It yielded another Facebook post from 24 June 2025 (archive) with the same footage, claiming it shows Iran targeting an American aircraft carrier in the Red Sea. The image below shows a matching frame from this video and the clip being fact-checked, confirming it is not linked to the recent US-Israel war with Iran.
On the left is the clip from March 2026, which matches the one from June 2025 on the right.
It was also posted on Facebook multiple times on 23 June 2025.
Furthermore, AFP, also an IFCN signatory, debunked the same clip in early March 2026. The fact-check found that it was old and contained unrealistic visuals that suggested it was not real.
It is important to note that Soch Fact Check has not been able to verify whether the clip is indeed a video game simulation. However, the fact that it appeared as early as June 2025 confirms the clip is old, and thus the claim is false.
Virality
The clip was shared on Facebook at least seven times, with three posts in particular gaining over a combined 12,800 views.
It also appeared on Instagram.
Instagram post sharing the footage in March 2026.
Conclusion: The video is old and appeared online as early as June 2025; it is not linked to the recent war.
Background image in cover photo: Wikipedia
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com