Image of Israeli spy strapped to rocket bears AI signs

After Iranian media reported the arrest of two people linked to Israel's intelligence agency during the arch rivals' 12-day war, online posts shared a blurry image of a man apparently strapped to a rocket with the false claim it depicted Tehran's way to "dispatch" spies. However, the picture bears signs it was generated using AI.

"Iranian media publishes the dispatch of a Mossad agent in this manner," reads the caption of an image shared on X on June 16, where it was reposted more than 6,000 times.

The blurry image appears to show a man strapped to a rocket, with what appears to be an Iranian flag attached to it.

The claim surfaced online after Iranian media said police in the country had arrested two people linked to Israel's intelligence agency Mossad on June 15 (archived link).

The arrests came in the midst of intense fighting between the long-term Middle East foes, triggered by Israeli strikes on June 13 that targeted Iranian nuclear sites and killed several senior military officials and nuclear scientists (archived link).

Iran responded with waves of drone and missile fire, and the exposure of Israel's deep intelligence penetration also prompted a major hunt for spies (archived link).

According to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, six men have been hanged on charges of spying for Israel since the start of the conflict, dozens more on other charges and more than 1,000 arrested during or after the conflict on charges related to the war.

The hostilities, which were brought to an end by a US-proposed ceasefire on June 24, killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and at least 28 people in Israel.

Similar posts sharing the image appeared elsewhere on X, on Facebook in English, Bengali and Arabic, and on YouTube.

Although some users were able to identify the image as AI-generated, others appeared to believe it was genuine.

"This is the kind of human animals Israel has to deal with," one responded.

Another said: "That's a war crime. Iran deserves everything that they'll get."

However, there are no official reports of Iran strapping people to rockets.

Reverse image searches on Google led to a high resolution version of the image on Facebook, where a nonsensical rendition of the Iranian flag can clearly be seen (archived link).

The man in the image also has a disfigured head, while the railings on the rocket launch platform also appears as a jumbled mess. Despite meteoric progress in artificial intelligence technology, such inconsistencies remain the best way to distinguish inauthentic images.

AFP has debunked other false claims related to the Iran-Israel war here.