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On Monday, the Department of Defense was forced to correct a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump, which wrongly asserted, through the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated video, that U.S. military forces had conducted a large-scale attack on Iran’s Kharg Island.
The U.S. and Iran launched attacks against each other on Sunday evening. But according to a U.S. official, no such attack occurred on Kharg Island, despite Trump’s post suggesting otherwise.
Instead, the U.S. military conducted attacks on Larak Island, which is close to the Iranian coastline near the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM claimed that the attack was necessary because Iran was supposedly placing “minelaying forces” in the area. In response, Iranian media reported that the country launched counterattacks against U.S. bases in Jordan.
The actions between the two countries are believed to be the first known attacks to have occurred since July. They also come as the war in Iran, started and continued by the Trump administration with no authorization from Congress, completed its sixth month of hostilities, despite the president promising at its start that it would take no more than a few weeks to complete.
In his Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump shared an AI video of bombings and said it depicted what was happening at Kharg Island, where, prior to the war, 90 percent of Iranian oil exports were handled.
“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!” Trump wrote.
It’s unclear whether Trump believed the video to be real before he shared it, or whether he believed an actual attack on the island had occurred.
Later on Monday, Vice President JD Vance tried to explain Trump’s post by saying that the president wasn’t commenting on what he thought was currently happening, but on what could happen in the future.
“The president likes to switch it up on social media a little bit. He would be the first to say he doesn’t make announcements about military actions on social media, but I think that he’s sending a message to the Iranians,” Vance said.
Early in the war, Trump had ordered limited attacks on Kharg Island, but large-scale attacks like those depicted in the video he shared never materialized.
An attack on Kharg Island could constitute a war crime. The oil refineries and other infrastructure on the island are civilian-based, not military targets. Additionally, the island is home to 8,000 permanent residents, meaning any large attack there would likely result in the loss of noncombatant innocent lives, in violation of international law.
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