Claim circulating: A video allegedly shows “powerful explosions at a refinery in Saudi Arabia caused by Iranian missiles.”

However, this claim is false.

The truth: These scenes are not real, as they were generated using artificial intelligence, according to FactCheck.

Annahar verified this for you.

The footage shows people running through a refinery while black smoke rises nearby, before powerful explosions shake the area, allegedly caused by missiles. The video has been spreading in recent hours on accounts that claimed, without verification, “the Riyadh refinery site was hit by large explosions a few hours ago.

Screenshot from the video that is being falsely circulated on Facebook.

Screenshot from the video that is being falsely circulated on X.

The truth about the video

The belief that these scenes are real is incorrect.

The video contains signs of artificial intelligence: mechanical voices of people in the background. A worker on the right floats above the rails in an unnatural way and passes through metal barriers as if they were transparent (timestamp 0:10).

Signs of artificial intelligence highlighted in red.

This conclusion is supported by the results of video analysis on platforms specialized in detecting fakes, such as Hive Moderation and matrix.tencent, which found that it was generated by artificial intelligence with a 97% probability.

Video analysis results from platforms specialized in detecting fakes.

Israel continues the war, and Tehran confirms ongoing missile production

The fake video circulated at a time when Israel carried out new strikes on Iran on Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran’s leadership is being “wiped out,” while the Islamic Republic, which continues its attacks on Gulf countries, confirmed it is still producing missiles despite the war, according to Agence France-Presse.

During a televised press conference on Thursday, Netanyahu said Israel is “victorious while Iran is being destroyed,” asserting that the Islamic Republic no longer has the capability to enrich uranium or produce ballistic missiles.

He added that he believes “this war will end sooner than people expect,” without specifying a timeline.

However, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard stated on Friday that the Islamic Republic continues to produce missiles despite the conflict. The Fars News Agency quoted Guard spokesman Ali Mohammad Naeini as saying: “Our missile production is performing excellently… There is no concern in this regard because even during wartime, we continue producing missiles.”

The attacks continue across multiple fronts in this regional conflict, coinciding on Friday with Nowruz, the Persian New Year, in Iran, and Eid al-Fitr in Saudi Arabia and most other Muslim countries. Iran, for its part, announced Saturday as the first day of Eid al-Fitr.

Gulf countries have been hit with waves of drones and ballistic missiles. The Kuwaiti army and the UAE Ministry of Interior announced separately that their defenses intercepted early morning missile attacks, while Saudi Arabia intercepted a number of drones, especially in the Eastern Province.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior reported a fire in a warehouse caused by falling debris from what it called “Iranian aggression.”

In Kuwait, a refinery targeted on Thursday was hit again by drone attacks, causing a fire and the shutdown of several units.

Since the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, Tehran has responded by targeting Gulf energy facilities, threatening the global economy.

Our final assessment: It is not true that “powerful explosions shook a refinery in Riyadh,” as shown in the circulating video. In fact, these scenes are not real, as they were generated by artificial intelligence.