A video which seems to show a military exercise is being circulated on the internet with users claiming that it actually shows the United States seizing the Russian-flagged oil tanker named 'Marinera'.
What did the viral post say?: The clip was shared with a caption that said, "This is the moment US Special Forces successfully boarded the RUSSIAN -flagged Iranian-linked oil tanker, Marinera, in the Atlantic ocean. I'm beginning to think that the US is mightier than we assumed."
What's the truth?: The video dates back to April 2025 and shows an annual exercise between the armed forces of the United States and the Philippines. This made the viral claim misleading.
How did we find that out?: A basic reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video using the help of Google Lens led us to the same visuals uploaded on a Facebook handle named 'Aeronews'.
This clip was shared on 15 May 2025 with a caption that said, "U.S. Army MH-60 Black Hawk and MH-47 Chinook helicopter assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) operate in formation with the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Combatant Craft (Assault) vessels. Video: US Navy."
This finding immediately proved that the visuals were old and unrelated to the recent development.
Other sources: On conducting a second round of Google Lens search, we came across the same video published on the official website of Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS).
As per the available details, the video was taken on 22 April 2025.
It showed an annual joint exercise between the Philippines and the US named 'Balikatan', which took place in Subic Bay, Philippines.
Conclusion: Evidently, the video is old and is being incorrectly linked to the US' seizure of the Russian-flagged oil tanker.
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