A recent social media post in Amharic claims that Iran carried out a severe attack using cruise missiles against a US military base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 2 September 2026. The post, which has been flagged as potentially misleading, has sparked concern among fact-checkers. According to reports, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed to have launched missile and drone attacks targeting US military bases and facilities in several countries, including the UAE, on that date.
However, a thorough investigation by PesaCheck, a fact-checking initiative based in East Africa, has found that the image accompanying the post does not depict the reported Iranian attack on a US military base in the UAE. A Google reverse image search revealed that the image was actually published by AP News with a different caption. The image shows smoke and flames rising from an Israeli military strike on a building in Gaza City.
The image was taken on February 6, 2026, and was also published by The Guardian. PesaCheck's findings confirm that the social media post is PARTLY FALSE, as the image does not match the claimed event. This fact-check is part of an ongoing series by PesaCheck to examine content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
PesaCheck is working in partnership with Facebook and similar social media platforms to help sort fact from fiction. The initiative aims to provide the public with deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds. By doing so, PesaCheck hopes to contribute to a more informed public discourse.
The fact-check was written by a PesaCheck fact-checker based in Ethiopia and edited by senior copy editor Mary Mutisya and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck's managing editor Doreen Wainainah. PesaCheck is East Africa's first public finance fact-checking initiative, co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations. The initiative seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world.
Key to this effort is testing the accuracy of media reportage and providing the public with reliable information. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
Key points
- The image accompanying the Facebook post does not depict the reported Iranian attack on a US military base in the UAE.
- The image actually shows an Israeli strike on a building in Palestine's Gaza City in February 2026.
- PesaCheck is working in partnership with Facebook and similar social media platforms to help sort fact from fiction.
