Pentagon Denies US Attack on Iranian Kharg Island after Trump Posts AI Video

By Staff, Agencies 

The Pentagon has denied that US forces attacked Iran’s Kharg Island after US President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video that appeared to depict a major US strike on the strategic petroleum export hub.

The video, posted Monday on Trump’s Truth Social account, showed what appeared to be oil storage tanks and refinery infrastructure engulfed in flames from a helicopter perspective. Trump accompanied the footage with the message “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens” and signed it “President DJT.”

A US official subsequently confirmed that no such attack had taken place and said Kharg Island was not among the locations targeted in the latest exchange of fire between US and Iranian forces.

The clarification came after the highly realistic footage created the impression that American forces had carried out an operation against one of Iran’s most strategically important energy facilities.

Hamid Bovard, head of the National Iranian Oil Company, dismissed Trump’s post as “laughable” and said conditions on Kharg Island remained “calm and appropriate.”

Kharg Island is Iran’s principal petroleum export facility, making any potential attack on the site particularly significant amid the wider confrontation over energy supplies and the Strait of Hormuz.

The strategic waterway has remained a major point of contention throughout the war. Before the war, about 20% of global oil supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz, with Washington demanding unrestricted shipping while Tehran has maintained that it has the right to manage traffic through the waterway.

Iranian media meanwhile reported explosions near Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. A US official said Iran had been preparing to launch mine-laying rockets as part of efforts to restrict traffic through the waterway in response to the US war.

Iranian forces also fired missiles toward Jordan, which an American official told CNN had been intercepted.
The dispute over the Kharg Island video comes as Trump continues to portray the US military operation against Iran as a success while giving no clear indication of when the war might end.

In a Sunday interview with Fox News, Trump defended the operation and rejected the idea that a formal agreement would necessarily be required to bring the war to an end.

“I don’t need a signature on a piece of paper,” Trump said.

Trump also accused Democratic critics of wanting the United States to lose the war, saying, “They want our country to lose the war with Iran, which isn’t going to happen because we are absolutely winning easily.”