Do pictures shared on social media show 173 American Delta Force soldiers captured in Iran after a failed U.S. air operation in Tehran? No, that's not true: One image, purportedly showing soldiers parachuting near helicopters, was rated 100% likely to be AI-generated. A second image, purportedly showing captured soldiers marching with their hands behind their backs, bears a visible Google Gemini AI watermark. There are no official reports or credible news accounts of 173 Delta Force soldiers being captured by Iran during the U.S. attack.
The claim appeared in a March 8, 2026, post on X account @AFGDefense (archived here). It opened:
🚨🇮🇷💥🇺🇲Iranian officials have officially confirmed that a U.S. air operation in Tehran failed, & 173 American soldiers & officers from the U.S. military's elite unit known as "Delta Force" were captured.
This is what the photos looked like on X.com at the time of writing:
(Image source: post of @AFGDefense on X.)
(Image source: post of @AFGDefense on X.)
Lead Stories uploaded the picture of the soldiers landing with parachutes next to the helicopters to the Hive Moderation AI-generated content detection tool for analysis (archived here). Hive scored it 100% likely to be AI-generated content, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Hive Moderation.)
The photo with the soldiers marching with their hands behind their backs has the watermark for Google's Gemini AI tool on the lower right corner, as this screenshot shows (red circle added by Lead Stories):
(Image source: post of @AFGDefense on X.)
Gemini (archived here) determined it was created or edited using Google AI:
(Image source: Google Gemini.)
Had 173 American Delta Force soldiers been captured in Iran after a failed U.S. air operation in Tehran, it would have been major news. Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here) and did not find any news reports of a U.S. military operation failing and 173 Delta Force soldiers being captured.
