Satellite photos showing damage to US naval base are said to be AI fakesPublished at 11:55 GMT
thomas copland
BBC Verify Live Journalist
An image that claims to show damage to a US naval base in Qatar as seen from space is an AI fake based on old satellite images from another location.
The image, posted on X by Iran’s state-run Tehran Times newspaper and widely shared online over the weekend, claims to show US radar equipment destroyed in Qatar.
The fake damage photos appear to be based on real satellite images of the US military base in Bahrain from February 2025, and are published on Google Maps and Google Earth.
According to Google’s SynthID watermark detector, the before and after images were generated or edited with Google AI.
Comparing with the original satellite image, we can also see differences in the roofs of the buildings at the bottom of the so-called “after” photo. You can also see three vehicles parked in the exact same space in both the real satellite image and the AI image. These photos were allegedly taken a year apart.
We have seen multiple videos showing the attack on the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain on Saturday.
A senior Bahraini official told BBC News that the base was attacked by an Iranian drone on Saturday night, causing a massive fire.
The drone crashed right next to a British naval facility adjacent to the US area, but the area had been evacuated and there were no casualties, the official added.
