Does a real video show Tomahawk missiles streaking past a merchant ship "on their way to targets in Iran"? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. The fake video shows missiles passing dangerously close to the ship and glitchy text on its containers. Although this video is fake, there is real footage that was filmed from a container ship off the coast of Oman showing Tomahawk missiles flying past.
The fake video was published on March 10, 2026, in an Instagram reel (archived here) by @tyrese without any caption.
Text captioning on the video reads:
INSANE:
A merchant ship crew in the middle of the sea documented Tomahawk missiles passing by on their way to targets in Iran
This is a screenshot of the reel:
(Image source: post by @tyrese on Instagram.)
The video shows several telltale signs of AI generation. Along the right edge of the video frame is the dark shadow of the corner of the stack of containers. There are markings and lettering on the containers. In the opening seconds of the video the text "HC3" can be clearly made out, but the glitching letters flicker and shift position (below). The missiles appear suddenly at tremendous speed rather than gradually approaching from a distance.
(Image source: post by @tyrese on Instagram, arrow added by Lead Stories.)
A search (archived here) of Google News for the phrase "Tomahawk missiles filmed from ship" returned some articles. One March 11, 2026, article (archived here) from Bellingcat is titled, "Tracing Tomahawks: US Missiles Bound for Iran Spotted Over Iraq." The article reviews several incidents appearing in videos, including a video filmed from a container ship. Bellingcat analysts verified the authenticity of the video, writing:
A final video analysed by Bellingcat, posted on March 3, shows 13 Tomahawk missiles flying past a commercial ship in the direction of Iran, the M/V MAERSK BOSTON, while it was off the coast of Oman, according to solar, visual and Marine Traffic data.
The screenshot below shows the real video posted on Facebook (archived here) on March 3, 2026. Lead Stories added an arrow pointing to the Tomahawk missile.
(Image source: post by @warren.wright.olanda on Facebook.)
