The Associated Press and Reuters distributed similar photos, but they showed only three missiles.
The Associated Press and Reuters distributed similar photos, but they showed only three missiles.
AFP, citing analysts' assessments, reported yesterday that the four-missile photo appeared to have had a little digital work done. "One of the missiles had apparently been added to the photograph using elements from the smoke trail and dust clouds from two of the other missiles," AFP said. The goal apparently was to cover up "a misfiring of one of the missiles," an expert told AFP
The BBC News website's picture editor, Phil Coomes, said: "Having examined the photograph from AFP, it can be seen that parts have been edited, with smoke trails and parts of the foreground being cloned."
Defence analyst Mark Fitzpatrick of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies told AFP: "It very much does appear that Iran doctored the photo to cover up what apparently was a misfiring of one of the missiles.
"The whole purpose of this testing was to send a signal so Iran both exaggerated the capabilities of the missile in their prose and apparently doctored the photos as well."
New York Times reported that as the illustration shows, the second missile from the right appears to be the sum of two other missiles in the image. The contours of the billowing smoke match perfectly near the ground, as well in the immediate wake of the missile. Only a small black dot in the reddish area of exhaust seems to differ from the missile to its left, though there are also some slight variations in the color of the smoke and the sky.
Christian Science Monitor wrote on the fake picture, the flaming tail of the second missile directly matches that of the third. And the dust cloud below the third mirrors the fourth.
There have been past allegation that Iran’s state media forges or at least fiddles with its images, the report added.