What was claimed
A video shows Iranian missiles hitting US ships near Jask Island.
Our verdict
False. This video is from 2016 and shows a military sinking exercise of the decommissioned USS Thach.
Old military exercise video shared with false claims it shows Iranian missiles hitting US ships
A video of a ship being fired at has been widely shared on social media with false claims it shows Iran attacking US ships.
Posts on Facebook and X are captioned: “Iran releases first footage that shows Two Iranian missiles hits multiple U.S. military ship or Frigates near Jask Island [sic]”.
But this video is old and doesn’t show active conflict. It dates back to 2016 and shows a military exercise between the US, Canada, Australia and South Korea sinking the decommissioned USS Thach.
On 4 May, Iran’s Fars News Agency (which is affiliated with the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) claimed two missiles hit a US warship sailing near the port of Jask at the southern entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.
US Central Command denied this, releasing a statement saying “no US Navy ships have been struck” and that its forces were “enforcing the naval blockade on Iranian ports”.
Join 73,000 newsletter subscribers who trust us to check the facts
Sign up to get weekly updates on politics, immigration, health and more.
Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more. Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy.
US President Donald Trump had previously announced that the US would help “guide” ships stranded by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday 5 May he said so-called Project Freedom would be “paused”.
Our toolkit can help you spot whether videos you see circulating on social media are trustworthy or whether you might not be getting the full picture.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this video is from 2016 and shows a military exercise.