{"id":1811418,"date":"2026-03-06T15:20:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1811418"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:20:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:20:02","slug":"who-will-lead-iran-after-death-of-ayatollah-ali-khamenei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1811418","title":{"rendered":"Who will lead Iran after death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/76241928_6.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/p.dw.com\/p\/59uRn<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n
Iran’s capital Tehran has been targeted by coordinated Israel-U.S. airstrikes in recent daysImage: Atta Kenare\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Since the United States and Israel began launching airstrikes against Iran<\/a> on February 28, social media has been flooded with content that claims\u00a0to show scenes from Tehran<\/a> and other Iranian cities.<\/p>\n

Though some footage is\u00a0real\u00a0\u2013\u00a0especially images published by reputable, professional media organizations\u00a0\u2013\u00a0some is\u00a0misleading, recycled, taken out of context or artificially generated<\/a> and simply fake.<\/p>\n

DW Fact Check examines several widely shared videos that users claim show events in Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tehran: Has the US explicitly dropped 2,000-pound bombs on the city?<\/h2>\n

Claim<\/strong>: In\u00a0a video in posted on X<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday that had received 2.9 million views by Friday, a\u00a0user claims that the footage shows the capital of Iran: Tehran. He states that the “US began dropping 2,000 pound (910-kilogram) bombs”\u00a0on March 4 and the Trump “administration still says this is not a war.”<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot
Ral videos are shared from the war in Iran with misleading captionsImage: X<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DW Fact Check<\/strong>: Misleading<\/p>\n

The US military confirmed on X<\/a> that B-2 stealth bombers began striking Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs as early as February 28. The United States started bombing Tehran from that date as well.<\/p>\n

A reverse image search shows that the video does indeed show bombing in Tehran \u2013\u00a0despite several other posts claiming eroneously that\u00a0the video shows Bagdad in 2003<\/a> or Beirut in 2020<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The user that first posted the video<\/a>, as well as the London-based media outlet Iran International,<\/a> both confirmed that it was taken close to Shariati Street in the Iranian, and therefore shows bombing in Tehran.\u00a0The language being\u00a0spoken in the video is Farsi (also known as Persian), the official language of Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, neither we nor the social media user in this claim can say with any certainty whether this video specifically shows “2,000-pound bombs” being dropped on\u00a0Tehran, as claimed.<\/p>\n

The claimed date is also incorrect.\u00a0The video was originally shared\u00a0on March 1 (see above) and therefore cannot show events on March 4. Clues that identify this as the original include the video being of a higher quality, a longer version and that it was the earliest posting we found online. The thread includes several videos from the same moment from different angles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the claim that “the administration still says this is not a war,” this is correct. US\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a> called the US\u00a0actions in Iran “major combat operations<\/a>,”\u00a0but there has indeed not yet been any formal declaration of “war.”<\/p>\n

In conclusion, some elements of this claim are true\u00a0\u2013 but other aspects of it are incorrect, misleading or unproven.<\/p>\n

Has\u00a0Ayatollah\u00a0Khamenei’s funeral taken place?<\/h2>\n

Claim<\/strong>: One\u00a0user on Facebook<\/a> claims that a video shows a funeral procession for Iran’s late surpeme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The video has been watched over 90,000 times\u00a0and was shared with the same claim on several other social media platforms (TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot
Upon closer inspection clues are revealed that are not consistent with what the user claims the video showsImage: facebook<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DW Fact check<\/strong>: False\u00a0<\/p>\n

Khamenei was killed<\/a> in the first wave of US-Israeli attacks. At the time of writing, an official funeral has not yet taken place. Indeed, it would be a major feat to organize such an event in such a short space of time, especially for a country at war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The video does indeed show a funeral, but not Khamenei’s; rather, it shows the funeral of\u00a0former Hezbollah leaders<\/a>\u00a0Hassan Nasrallah and his likely successor Hashem Safieddine which took place on\u00a0February 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

By conducting reserve image searches with screenshots from the video, we found\u00a0articles by news outlets<\/a> with similar visuals.<\/p>\n

The AFP news agency took more detailed photos<\/a> of that funeral, in which we can identify the portraits of Nasrallah and Safieddine, as well as the flags of Hezbollah and\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0 (circled in blue).<\/p>\n

Has Khamenei’s son been\u00a0killed?<\/h2>\n

Claim<\/strong>: In this post on X<\/a>, a user claims that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s recently assassinated supreme leader,\u00a0was also killed in US\u00a0strikes in Tehran. The post has 2.6 million views at the time of writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Archived
Wild claims often generate many views when they fit within current developmentsImage: X<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DW Fact check<\/strong>: Unproven<\/p>\n

Despite numerous reports<\/a> suggesting that\u00a0Mojtaba Khamenei may indeed be set to succeed his late father as supreme leader, this has not yet been confirmed. Indeed, DW Fact check has already debunked one deepfake claiming to show\u00a0Mojtaba’s supposed inauguration address<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that any leader appointed by the Iranian regime to replace Khamenei would be an “unequivocal target for elimination<\/a>.” However, there is as yet no evidence to suggest that\u00a0Mojtaba has met this fate.<\/p>\n

Were he to be killed,\u00a0we would expect this to be\u00a0publicly communicated by either the US, Israel or Iran. No formal statement of the sort has been made.<\/p>\n

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Who will lead Iran after death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?<\/h2>\n

Negin Jamshidi Fard and Niloofar Gholami contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Edited by Matt Ford<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Since the United States and Israel began launching airstrikes against Iran<\/a> on February 28, social media has been flooded with content that claims\u00a0to show scenes from Tehran<\/a> and other Iranian cities.<\/p>\n

Though some footage is\u00a0real\u00a0\u2013\u00a0especially images published by reputable, professional media organizations\u00a0\u2013\u00a0some is\u00a0misleading, recycled, taken out of context or artificially generated<\/a> and simply fake.<\/p>\n

DW Fact Check examines several widely shared videos that users claim show events in Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tehran: Has the US explicitly dropped 2,000-pound bombs on the city?<\/h2>\n

Claim<\/strong>: In\u00a0a video in posted on X<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday that had received 2.9 million views by Friday, a\u00a0user claims that the footage shows the capital of Iran: Tehran. He states that the “US began dropping 2,000 pound (910-kilogram) bombs”\u00a0on March 4 and the Trump “administration still says this is not a war.”<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot
Ral videos are shared from the war in Iran with misleading captionsImage: X<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DW Fact Check<\/strong>: Misleading<\/p>\n

The US military confirmed on X<\/a> that B-2 stealth bombers began striking Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs as early as February 28. The United States started bombing Tehran from that date as well.<\/p>\n

A reverse image search shows that the video does indeed show bombing in Tehran \u2013\u00a0despite several other posts claiming eroneously that\u00a0the video shows Bagdad in 2003<\/a> or Beirut in 2020<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The user that first posted the video<\/a>, as well as the London-based media outlet Iran International,<\/a> both confirmed that it was taken close to Shariati Street in the Iranian, and therefore shows bombing in Tehran.\u00a0The language being\u00a0spoken in the video is Farsi (also known as Persian), the official language of Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, neither we nor the social media user in this claim can say with any certainty whether this video specifically shows “2,000-pound bombs” being dropped on\u00a0Tehran, as claimed.<\/p>\n

The claimed date is also incorrect.\u00a0The video was originally shared\u00a0on March 1 (see above) and therefore cannot show events on March 4. Clues that identify this as the original include the video being of a higher quality, a longer version and that it was the earliest posting we found online. The thread includes several videos from the same moment from different angles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the claim that “the administration still says this is not a war,” this is correct. US\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a> called the US\u00a0actions in Iran “major combat operations<\/a>,”\u00a0but there has indeed not yet been any formal declaration of “war.”<\/p>\n

In conclusion, some elements of this claim are true\u00a0\u2013 but other aspects of it are incorrect, misleading or unproven.<\/p>\n

Has\u00a0Ayatollah\u00a0Khamenei’s funeral taken place?<\/h2>\n

Claim<\/strong>: One\u00a0user on Facebook<\/a> claims that a video shows a funeral procession for Iran’s late surpeme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The video has been watched over 90,000 times\u00a0and was shared with the same claim on several other social media platforms (TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot
Upon closer inspection clues are revealed that are not consistent with what the user claims the video showsImage: facebook<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DW Fact check<\/strong>: False\u00a0<\/p>\n

Khamenei was killed<\/a> in the first wave of US-Israeli attacks. At the time of writing, an official funeral has not yet taken place. Indeed, it would be a major feat to organize such an event in such a short space of time, especially for a country at war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The video does indeed show a funeral, but not Khamenei’s; rather, it shows the funeral of\u00a0former Hezbollah leaders<\/a>\u00a0Hassan Nasrallah and his likely successor Hashem Safieddine which took place on\u00a0February 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

By conducting reserve image searches with screenshots from the video, we found\u00a0articles by news outlets<\/a> with similar visuals.<\/p>\n

The AFP news agency took more detailed photos<\/a> of that funeral, in which we can identify the portraits of Nasrallah and Safieddine, as well as the flags of Hezbollah and\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0 (circled in blue).<\/p>\n

Has Khamenei’s son been\u00a0killed?<\/h2>\n

Claim<\/strong>: In this post on X<\/a>, a user claims that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s recently assassinated supreme leader,\u00a0was also killed in US\u00a0strikes in Tehran. The post has 2.6 million views at the time of writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Archived
Wild claims often generate many views when they fit within current developmentsImage: X<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DW Fact check<\/strong>: Unproven<\/p>\n

Despite numerous reports<\/a> suggesting that\u00a0Mojtaba Khamenei may indeed be set to succeed his late father as supreme leader, this has not yet been confirmed. Indeed, DW Fact check has already debunked one deepfake claiming to show\u00a0Mojtaba’s supposed inauguration address<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that any leader appointed by the Iranian regime to replace Khamenei would be an “unequivocal target for elimination<\/a>.” However, there is as yet no evidence to suggest that\u00a0Mojtaba has met this fate.<\/p>\n

Were he to be killed,\u00a0we would expect this to be\u00a0publicly communicated by either the US, Israel or Iran. No formal statement of the sort has been made.<\/p>\n

\n

Who will lead Iran after death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?<\/h2>\n

Negin Jamshidi Fard and Niloofar Gholami contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Edited by Matt Ford<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Since the United States and Israel began launching airstrikes against Iran<\/a> on February 28, social media has been flooded with content that claims\u00a0to show scenes from Tehran<\/a> and other Iranian cities.<\/p>\n

Though some footage is\u00a0real\u00a0\u2013\u00a0especially images published by reputable, professional media organizations\u00a0\u2013\u00a0some is\u00a0misleading, recycled, taken out of context or artificially generated<\/a> and simply fake.<\/p>\n

DW Fact Check examines several widely shared videos that users claim show events in Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Claim<\/strong>: In\u00a0a video in posted on X<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday that had received 2.9 million views by Friday, a\u00a0user claims that the footage shows the capital of Iran: Tehran. He states that the “US began dropping 2,000 pound (910-kilogram) bombs”\u00a0on March 4 and the Trump “administration still says this is not a war.”<\/p>\n

DW Fact Check<\/strong>: Misleading<\/p>\n

The US military confirmed on X<\/a> that B-2 stealth bombers began striking Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs as early as February 28. The United States started bombing Tehran from that date as well.<\/p>\n

A reverse image search shows that the video does indeed show bombing in Tehran \u2013\u00a0despite several other posts claiming eroneously that\u00a0the video shows Bagdad in 2003<\/a> or Beirut in 2020<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The user that first posted the video<\/a>, as well as the London-based media outlet Iran International,<\/a> both confirmed that it was taken close to Shariati Street in the Iranian, and therefore shows bombing in Tehran.\u00a0The language being\u00a0spoken in the video is Farsi (also known as Persian), the official language of Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, neither we nor the social media user in this claim can say with any certainty whether this video specifically shows “2,000-pound bombs” being dropped on\u00a0Tehran, as claimed.<\/p>\n

The claimed date is also incorrect.\u00a0The video was originally shared\u00a0on March 1 (see above) and therefore cannot show events on March 4. Clues that identify this as the original include the video being of a higher quality, a longer version and that it was the earliest posting we found online. The thread includes several videos from the same moment from different angles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the claim that “the administration still says this is not a war,” this is correct. US\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a> called the US\u00a0actions in Iran “major combat operations<\/a>,”\u00a0but there has indeed not yet been any formal declaration of “war.”<\/p>\n

In conclusion, some elements of this claim are true\u00a0\u2013 but other aspects of it are incorrect, misleading or unproven.<\/p>\n

Claim<\/strong>: One\u00a0user on Facebook<\/a> claims that a video shows a funeral procession for Iran’s late surpeme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The video has been watched over 90,000 times\u00a0and was shared with the same claim on several other social media platforms (TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

DW Fact check<\/strong>: False\u00a0<\/p>\n

Khamenei was killed<\/a> in the first wave of US-Israeli attacks. At the time of writing, an official funeral has not yet taken place. Indeed, it would be a major feat to organize such an event in such a short space of time, especially for a country at war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The video does indeed show a funeral, but not Khamenei’s; rather, it shows the funeral of\u00a0former Hezbollah leaders<\/a>\u00a0Hassan Nasrallah and his likely successor Hashem Safieddine which took place on\u00a0February 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

By conducting reserve image searches with screenshots from the video, we found\u00a0articles by news outlets<\/a> with similar visuals.<\/p>\n

The AFP news agency took more detailed photos<\/a> of that funeral, in which we can identify the portraits of Nasrallah and Safieddine, as well as the flags of Hezbollah and\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0 (circled in blue).<\/p>\n

Claim<\/strong>: In this post on X<\/a>, a user claims that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s recently assassinated supreme leader,\u00a0was also killed in US\u00a0strikes in Tehran. The post has 2.6 million views at the time of writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DW Fact check<\/strong>: Unproven<\/p>\n

Despite numerous reports<\/a> suggesting that\u00a0Mojtaba Khamenei may indeed be set to succeed his late father as supreme leader, this has not yet been confirmed. Indeed, DW Fact check has already debunked one deepfake claiming to show\u00a0Mojtaba’s supposed inauguration address<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that any leader appointed by the Iranian regime to replace Khamenei would be an “unequivocal target for elimination<\/a>.” However, there is as yet no evidence to suggest that\u00a0Mojtaba has met this fate.<\/p>\n

Were he to be killed,\u00a0we would expect this to be\u00a0publicly communicated by either the US, Israel or Iran. No formal statement of the sort has been made.<\/p>\n

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\n

Negin Jamshidi Fard and Niloofar Gholami contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Edited by Matt Ford<\/em><\/p>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/fact-check-verifying-images-of-us-israel-war-on-iran\/a-76243619″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/76241928_6.jpg”] https:\/\/p.dw.com\/p\/59uRn Iran’s capital Tehran has been targeted by coordinated Israel-U.S. airstrikes in recent daysImage: Atta Kenare\/AFP\/Getty Images Since the United States and Israel began launching airstrikes against Iran on February 28, social media has been flooded with content that claims\u00a0to show scenes from Tehran and other Iranian cities. Though some footage is\u00a0real\u00a0\u2013\u00a0especially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,74],"class_list":["post-1811418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dw-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1811418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1811418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1811418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1811418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}