Lighthouse Journalism came across a video being widely shared on social media platforms. It was being claimed along with the video that it showed US Special Forces successfully boarding a Russian flagged Iranian-linked oil tanker.
During the investigation we found that the video instead shows a training exercise between the US military and Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Claim:
X user Imtiaz Mahmood shared the viral video on their profile.
Other users are also sharing the same claim with the viral video.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
We found the video on YouTube channel of ‘@SOCOMAthlete’ on May 29 2025.
The description said: Navy Special Warfare and 160th SOAR conduct joint training operations.
The caption further stated: U.S. Naval Special Warfare and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment operate in formation during casualty evacuation hoist training in Subic Bay, Philippines during Exercise Balikatan 25, April 22, 2025.
Balikatan is a longstanding annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. military designed to strengthen our ironclad alliance, improve our capable combined force, and demonstrate our commitment to regional security and stability. (U.S. Navy Courtesy Video)
We also found the video on Instagram handle of ‘alexthepilot‘. The video was posted on May 17, 2025.
We also found the video on the official website of ‘US Army Europe and Africa’.
The caption along with the video said: U.S. Naval Special Warfare Combatant Craft (Assault) vessels, a Combatant Craft Medium, and U.S. Army MH-60 Black Hawk and MH-47 Chinook helicopters assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) operate in formation during casualty evacuation hoist training in Subic Bay, Philippines during Exercise Balikatan 25, April 22, 2025. Balikatan is a longstanding annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. military designed to strengthen our ironclad alliance, improve our capable combined force, and demonstrate our commitment to regional security and stability. (U.S. Navy Courtesy Video)
However, after a Google keyword search we found that there were reports about US forces attempting to board an oil tanker, but the video being widely shared claiming to show the incident is old.
Conclusion: The viral video does not show U.S. forces boarding a Russian-flagged, Iran-linked tanker. It is actually footage of U.S. Naval Special Warfare and the 160th SOAR conducting casualty evacuation hoist training in Subic Bay during Exercise Balikatan 25. The claim is misleading.
