In March 2026, after U.S. Central Command said air defenses in Kuwait mistakenly shot down three U.S. fighter pilots, an image circulated online that claimed to show a local man confronting one such downed pilot.
One X page that posted the photo wrote (archived):
Incredible photo: A Kuwaiti man confronted an ejected American pilot with a metal pipe after mistaking him for an Iranian pilot, before quickly realizing his mistake.
The image also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and Reddit (archived).
However, the image was a fake. According to Gemini (archived), Google's generative artificial intelligence model, it contained SynthID, a digital watermark that Google adds to content created or generated with its AI tools.
The fake image resembled a smaller, lower-quality image (archived) of the alleged downed pilot that also circulated online. Snopes could not independently verify the authenticity of that image or a video (archived) claiming to show the same person.
It was possible that someone used Gemini to enhance the low-quality picture, creating the higher-resolution image above that contained SynthID. Snopes regards images created in this way to be fake, even if they are based on authentic images.
Snopes contacted the Department of Defense and Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, to ask whether the low-quality image and video showed an authentic encounter between a downed U.S. pilot and locals in Kuwait and await a reply.
Beyond the SynthID, the fake image also showed classic signs of AI use. For example, both the pilot and Kuwaiti man were missing one finger on each of their hands.
(X user @RpsAgainstTrump)
At the time of this writing, U.S. Central Command said Kuwait's air defenses shot down three American F-15 fighter jets in its airspace in an "apparent friendly fire incident" on March 1.
The six crew members from the three planes ejected safely and were recovering, according to U.S. Central Command's news release. That release did not name or otherwise identify the crew.
The command said the cause of the incident was under investigation.
U.S. and Israeli forces carried out Feb. 28, 2026, strikes on Iran that killed the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran retaliated with strikes on Israel, Arab states and U.S. military targets in the region in the following days.
By the morning of March 2, U.S. Central Command said four U.S. service members had been killed in action (archived) in the Middle East.
Al Jazeera reported, citing the Iranian Red Crescent, that at least 555 people had died in Iran in various strikes. Israeli officials reported (archived) at least nine people died in Iranian missile strikes as of March 2.