Photo of Tehran’s Milad Tower lit up depicted as showing ‘victory’ celebration
Photo is misrepresented and has been traced back to have been published at least already in 2016
CLAIM
A photo of Tehran’s Milad Tower is being circulated on social media claiming to show the landmark lit up to celebrate Iran’s “victory” following a ceasefire with Israel.
BACKGROUND
Crowds of Iranians celebrated in their capital on Tuesday, June 24, claiming “victory” after a ceasefire was announced ending almost two weeks of strikes between Israel and Iran that also saw the U.S. joining the conflict last weekend.
Israel launched strikes on Iran on June 13 claiming it aimed to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon that it was only weeks away from having. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the UN atomic (IAEA) said. no evidence was found of an “active systematic plan to build a nuclear weapon.”
The strikes were met with retaliatory strikes by Iran leading to both sides firing missiles at each other over 12 days. The U.S. also carried out strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran last weekend, including dropping “bunker buster” bombs on Fordo — an underground nuclear facility. Following U.S. involvement, Iran responded with strikes aimed at America’s largest military base in the Middle East — Al-Udeid base near Doha with around 10,000 service members.
While U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites reports on a leaked intelligence report quickly cast doubt over the assertion.
Outside of military and nuclear targets, the strikes were also widely reported to have hit residential areas and civilian infrastructure. Israeli strikes on Iran claimed 627 lives with almost 5,000 wounded, according to latest reports citing the Iranian health ministry. In Israel, Iranian strikes killed 28 people and wounded around 3,000 more, according to the country’s health ministry.
On Tuesday evening, a photo began circulating on X claiming to show Tehran’s landmark Milad Tower lit up in celebration. A popular X account that posts about Iran and shared the photo received 3.4 million views and saw the photo reposted almost 10,000 times, according to metrics provided by X.
Under the photo, some people asked X’s AI assistant Grok to verify the photo and associated claims of a victory celebration in Tehran. Grok also responded saying the Milad Tower had been lit up in celebration though it did not confirm the authenticity of the photo itself.
METHOD
The panoramic view of the photo and its appearance resembling a stock photo raised first doubts about the claim it showed a current view of the Milad Tower.
A reverse image search on TinEye confirmed the suspicion as it returned results dating back to 2016 of the same photo. A search on Google Images also returned older versions of this photo mostly from social media sites, including Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
We could not find the first version of this photo but it is clear the photo is unrelated to recent events.
RATING
The photo is misrepresented and has been traced back to have been published at least already in 2016 and possibly earlier.
SOURCES
Al Jazeera. (2025). Tehran attacks US base in Qatar, hours later Trump states Israel-Iran truce. [online] [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
The Times of Israel. (2025). The Israel-Iran war by the numbers, after 12 days of fighting [online] [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
TRT. (2025). In pictures: Iranians celebrate ‘victory’ over Israel in 12-Day conflict [online] [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
WSJ. (2025). Hegseth Touts ‘Resounding Success’ of Iran Strikes [online] [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: Tehran Now… The Iranian capital is celebrating the great victory. [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: @grok verify this new if is true #MiddleEastCrisis [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].