Does a video show an American oil tanker struck by Iran and burning in the Strait of Hormuz? No, that's not true: The video shows the aftermath of a collision between two oil tankers, neither owned by the United States, in the Gulf of Oman, east of the strait. The video is from the summer of 2025, predating the Middle East conflict that began in 2026.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on March 5, 2026. It read:
American oil tanker struck by Iran!
An oil tanker is ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @hippyygoat on X.com.)
Conflict in the Middle East
The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on Feb. 28, 2026, which killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an airstrike on his compound in Tehran. Iran has responded with drone and missile strikes against the U.S. and allied targets across the Middle East.
Original video
A reverse image search (archived here) on Google Images found that the video comes from a collision on June 17, 2025, in the Gulf of Oman, just off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) near the Strait of Hormuz. The crash (archived here) involved two oil tankers, the Adalynn and the Front Eagle.
The video of the fire (archived here) shot by the UAE Coast Guard was widely shared across social media (archived here) at the time:
The Dark Fleet tanker Adalynn is engulfed in flames in the Gulf of Oman after a collision with another tanker, the MV Front Eagle.
-- Neha Khanna (@nehakhanna_07) June 17, 2025
The point of impact is ablaze, with large sections of the ship's superstructure burning intensely.
All 24 crew members aboard Adalynn have been... pic.twitter.com/wStsmd5Ei8
