Large crowds gathered in Tehran in early July to mourn Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed in a U.S. and Israeli airstrike that sparked a regional war in late February. However, the clip of the ceremony circulating online is fabricated, the footage does not match real footage from the Iranian capital, and detection software shows it was generated using AI.
An X-post published on July 5, 2026 states, “About 40 million people attended the funeral of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran, not including various cities across the country.”
The post shares a 33-second aerial video of people gathering at a large religious site. Crowds dressed in black filled the streets surrounding the venue, holding Arabic signs and Iranian flags.
Screenshot of an X post sharing an AI-generated video taken on July 9, 2026 (AFP added AI symbol)
Other posts sharing the same video made similar claims in Thai, English, Sindhi and Arabic and went viral, with one clip racking up more than 20,000 views.
The footage went viral as crowds gathered in Tehran for Khamenei’s six-day public funeral, which began on July 4 and included a dedication day in neighboring Iraq (archive link).
Mourners packed a religious site in Iran’s capital, Grand Mosala, where his body was laid to rest alongside the coffins of four other family members who also died in the February 28 US and Israeli attack.
However, the video shared online contains multiple visual inconsistencies and elements that do not match the authentic photo of Grand Mosala.
AI generated video
The clip itself depicts the same structure in different ways across several cuts.
In one shot, only two minarets are visible within the complex, but seconds later the building appears with a green roof and four additional minarets.
Screenshot of an AI-generated video with elements highlighted by AFP
Satellite images from Google Maps show Grand Mosala with features that do not match the structure depicted in the circulating video (archived link).
Comparison of AI-generated video (L) and screenshot of Google Maps satellite image of Grand Mosara
AFP also took and distributed photos of mourners at Grand Mosala on July 5, which differ from the footage circulating online.
We analyzed the video using Hive Moderation, an AI detection tool, and found that it was generated by AI 99.7% of the time (archived link).
Screenshot of Hive moderation results taken on July 9, 2026
AFP has previously debunked other AI-generated content related to Iran and the Middle East wars.
