{"id":44029,"date":"2026-03-31T02:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T02:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/44029\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:53:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T02:53:19","slug":"is-this-image-of-a-child-climbing-on-a-missile-real-abc-news-verify-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/44029\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this image of a child climbing on a missile real? ABC NEWS Verify explains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Huge amounts of false images and video circulating about the conflict in Iran are often making it difficult to distinguish genuine news from manipulated fakery.<\/p>\n

ABC NEWS Verify has observed social media users calling ABC verified and published content “AI slop”, “obviously fake”, and even saying “photoshop much.”<\/p>\n

To help you understand how the ABC makes sure what it reports is genuine, we’re going to step you through the process we took to prove one photo \u2014 an extraordinary image of a child clambering up the tail end of what appears to be a missile sticking out of the ground \u2014 was real.<\/p>\n

It’s a genuine photograph of a missile booster that has fallen to the ground after launching its payload.<\/p>\n

This is how we know it is not a fake.<\/p>\n

Verified agency reporting<\/p>\n

These images appeared online four weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Provided by the Associated Press, they were taken on March 4.<\/p>\n

ABC NEWS Verify first geolocated them to a field near Qamishli airport in eastern Syria.<\/p>\n

\"child<\/p>\n

A child stands near a missile in Qamishli, Syria. (AP: Hogir Al Abdo)<\/p>\n

Reuters also posted video of what appeared to be the same object sticking out of the ground from multiple angles on the same day, so we analysed the images together.<\/p>\n

Both Associated Press, founded in 1846, and Reuters, founded in 1851, have long been trusted as independent news-gathering agencies, working with media organisations around the globe such as the ABC.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

In the different angles of the images and videos posted by both agencies, we established that the object is visually consistent.<\/p>\n

The next step was witnesses. Both agencies provided interviews with local residents who claimed they saw and heard what happened.<\/p>\n

Resident Joudi Asaad told Reuters he was herding sheep when he and others saw a missile overhead.<\/p>\n

Another local, Hussein al Ali, told AP it was “terrifying”.<\/p>\n

“We woke up to the whistle sound of the missile. Then we came out and heard the loud hitting sound. It terrified children, women, and people in the village,” he said.<\/p>\n

Expert identifies missile piece as booster<\/p>\n

ABC NEWS Verify then spoke with an expert to try to explain what we were looking at.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst in Defense Strategy with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said what’s seen in the photo is the booster stage of an Iranian short-range ballistic missile (SRBM).<\/p>\n

“When a ballistic missile launches, the entire missile doesn’t hit the target, it carries a warhead, and it releases the warhead at a certain point to carry on to the target, the booster section is then expendable,” Dr Davis said.<\/p>\n

“And what you’ve seen is that the booster has launched its warhead, it’s used up all its fuel, so it’s come crashing down to earth, and hit the ground.<\/p>\n

\"Orange<\/p>\n

Rocket trails are seen in the sky amid a fresh barrage of Iranian missile attacks above the Israeli coastal city of Netanya. (AFP: Jack Guez)<\/p>\n

“And because it’s light, as a result of using up its fuel, it’s come down in a way that hasn’t created a huge impact crater; it’s a small hole that basically the missiles dug itself into.<\/p>\n

“It’s not dangerous in the sense of being either an explosive risk or corrosive, [but] I wouldn’t suggest you go near it personally.”<\/p>\n

Iran’s missile capabilities<\/p>\n

Dr Davis said the booster likely came from a Fateh-110 SRBM, which has been used by Iran for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

They have an estimated range of up to 300 kilometres.<\/p>\n

Since the March 4 photo went viral, other similar pictures have appeared online.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A girl poses for a picture next to the remnants of a missile stuck in the ground found in Kifl Haris.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 (Reuters: Mohammed Torokman)<\/p>\n

This one from March 24 shows the booster of a ballistic missile that crashed near Kifl Haris village, near Nablus, in Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Huge amounts of false images and video circulating about the conflict in Iran are often making it difficult…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4218,18453,8680,2928,95],"class_list":{"0":"post-44029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-fact-checking","9":"tag-image","10":"tag-misinformation","11":"tag-missile","12":"tag-syria"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116321531177770508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}