Is a video showing the Burj Khalifa skyscraper on fire amid the U.S. attack on Iran real? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the image 99.9% likely to be AI-generated. There were explosions due to retaliation from Iran in the United Arab Emirates near the skyscraper in Dubai, but the building itself was not hit or on fire, according to news reports.
The claim appeared in a March 2, 2026, post on X account @MojtabaSpoof (archived here). It opened:
We fired 1,800 missiles at the Burj Khalifa.
Every single missile hit the target.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.)
Lead Stories uploaded the picture to the Hive Moderation AI-generated content detection tool for analysis (archived here). Hive scored it 99.9% likely to be AI-generated content, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Hive Moderation website.)
Images available on Reuters (archived here) show the Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure in the world, was not damaged after missiles were fired in Dubai by Iran in retaliation for a U.S. attack. The Burj Al Arab hotel was damaged in an attack on February 28, 2026, according to Reuters (archived here).
Had the Burj Khalifa been hit with missiles it would have been major news. Lead Stories searched Google news (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here) and did not find any matching reports of the Dubai landmark being hit by multiple missiles.
Other fact checks
This claim was also investigated by Full Fact, India Today and Navbharat Times.
