No, this video does not show Iran missile attack

After Iran launched nearly 200 missiles toward Israel on Oct. 1, some social media users have posted what they say is footage of the attack. 

"Iranian state TV just ran this," one X user wrote Oct. 1, along with a video of hundreds of missiles soaring through the sky. Other users shared the video on X, also claiming it shows an Iranian missile attack.

Screenshot from X

But the video predates Iran’s Oct. 1 missile attack. It has been circulating on the internet since at least Nov. 13, 2023. On one X post, a community note says the footage is from the video game "Wargame: Red Dragon." Community notes let users add context to potentially misleading tweets.

Cédric Le Dressay, the CEO of Eugen Systems, which developed "Wargame: Red Dragon," told PolitiFact via email that the X clip uses footage from the video game.

A PolitiFact review of YouTube videos of "Wargame: Red Dragon" shows that the video game has missiles, vehicles and landscapes similar to the ones in the clip.

Hafiz Malik, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, told PolitiFact that the video had telltale signs of being computer generated, including that the explosions did not cause leaves on the trees to move and that projectiles disappeared into the scene.

Featured Fact-check

Threads posts

stated on October 23, 2024 in a Threads post

Kamala Harris’ statements about Trump invoking Adolf Hitler were based on a “debunked hoax from The Atlantic.”

We searched Google but found no news of Iranian state television broadcasting the video. 

We rate the claim that a video shows an Iranian missile attack Pants on Fire!

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

UPDATE, Oct. 7, 2024: We updated this fact-check to include a comment from Cédric Le Dressay, the CEO of the company that developed the video game "Wargame: Red Dragon."