What was claimed
A video shows that an American tanker, which attempted to transit the Strait of Hormuz, is now in the custody of Iran.
Our verdict
False. The footage is actually from July 2019 and depicts Iranian forces seizing a British-flagged vessel, the Stena Impero. There have been no verified reports of an American-flagged tanker being seized by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.
Old footage of a tanker being seized by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz is being shared online alongside false claims which incorrectly suggest it shows the recent capture of an American ship.
The clip and screenshots of it which have been circulating on Facebook, shows the side of a ship which bears the words ‘IMO MAX’ and ‘STENA IMPERO’, being boarded by soldiers from a helicopter hovering overhead.
Captions with the recent versions shared say: “Reports circulate that an American tanker, which attempted to transit the Strait of Hormuz, is now in the custody of Iran.”
But this isn’t what this footage depicts. While it does show Iranian forces seizing a tanker, this took place in July 2019, and involved the seizure of the British-flagged vessel—the Stena Impero—in the Strait of Hormuz.
The same clip was posted by Iran’s Fars News Agency (which is affiliated with the country’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps) on 20 July 2019 on X with a caption (translated from Persian) saying: “The moment the British tanker was seized by the IRGC's marines.”
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The ship was released in September of that same year.
Additionally, there have been no verified reports of any American-flagged tankers being seized in the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway and global shipping route which runs between Iran, the UAE and Oman. At least two US-flagged ships have been damaged in and around the Gulf since the war began.
Traffic through the Strait is currently severely reduced, with the suggestion by some Iranian officials that access is blocked only to “enemy countries”. Dozens of commercial vessels have been struck by Iran in the Strait, although some ships have been able to pass through.
Amid the continuing conflict in the Middle East, we have seen a number of misleading and old videos, often from different places or other conflicts shared with false claims that they show current events.
Before sharing content you see circulating on social media, it’s important to consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source. Our toolkit can help you to do this.
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 missing context because this is old imagery, and there is no evidence Iran has recently seized a US tanker.
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