AI-Generated Video Viral As Iran's Attack On US Base In Qatar

An AI generated video of a mushroom cloud caused by multiple explosions is viral claiming it shows Iran's ballistic missile attack on a US military base in Qatar.

BOOM found that the video is created using OpenAI's Sora and does not show the June 23 missile attack. A 12-day active conflict between Iran and Israel ended on June 24, hours after Iran launched retaliatory strikes on an US Air Force Base in Qatar, against President Donald Trump's attack on the country, supporting Israel.

The Claim

The video is being shared with the caption, "Iran attacks U.S. airbase in Qatar with ballistic missiles" and shows a mushroom cloud rising over an area populated with skyscrapers.

What We Found: Video Is AI Generated

1. OpenAI's Sora Watermark

At the bottom right corner of the video, a faint logo of Sora, OpenAI's AI video generator model is visible. Taking this as a cue, we ran a test for the video using Hive Moderation and Was It AI's AI detection tools, and both confirmed that the video was likely to contain AI generated visuals.

2. Original Video By TikTok AI Content Account

A reverse image search using specific keywords led us to a June 14, 2025, post by Tal Hagin, who identified himself as a researcher with an Israeli investigative website FakeReporter. Hagin shared a screenshot of a TikTok post carrying the same visuals as the viral video, terming that it was AI generated and posted a link to the original TikTok video.

While the original post has since been deleted, we used the URL shared by Hagin and found an archived version of the same. The archive shows the original was posted by an account @miniverseproductions and carried the disclaimer, 'Creator labelled as AI-generated'.