Israeli officials say Iran's top security figure, Ali Larijani, was killed in a strike on Tehran on Tuesday, just days after his final, barbed message on X invoked Jeffrey Epstein and took direct aim at Donald Trump's claims about the war.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told reporters in Israel on 17 March that Larijani, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, died alongside the head of the Basij paramilitary force in what he called a 'precise' operation guided by intelligence.
Ali Larijani's 'Epstein' Post And A Shot At Trump
In the hours before his death, Ali Larijani's final public words appeared not in an official communiqué but in a pointed post on X. The message, which has since been circulated widely by regional outlets, stitched together Iran's revolutionary history, Trump's rhetoric and a loaded reference to 'Epstein Island'.
In the post, Larijani shared an image recalling events from 1979. According to the text, '47 years ago, on the threshold of the people's victory in the 1357 revolution in Iran, the delusional Pahlavi Prime Minister used to say that the sound of the massive crowds in the streets was not real, but the sound of a tape recording.'
He then pivoted sharply to Donald Trump. 'Now, Trump says about the million‑strong anti‑American and anti‑Israeli gatherings in Iranian cities that these images are AI‑generated,' the post continued. In Larijani's telling, Trump was replaying an old script, dismissing hostile crowds as fake and manipulated.
'The historical victory of the people of Iran over the remnants of Epstein Island is near,' the image read. The phrase 'Epstein Island' is a reference to the private island owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which has become shorthand online for elite scandal, exploitation and conspiracy.
As of reporting, Iranian government has not issued a formal explanatory statement about Larijani's posted message.
Death Claims And Information Chaos After Strikes On Iran
The news of Ali Larijani's killing landed amid a blizzard of real and fabricated material about the strikes on Iran. Minutes after Trump announced that US and Israeli forces had launched a 'major combat operation' against Tehran, disinformation about the attacks and Iran's response poured across X.
Last week of February this year, technology outlet Wired said it had reviewed hundreds of posts on the platform, some clocking up millions of views, that misrepresented the scale, location or success of the strikes.
Almost all of the most widely shared posts examined by Wired came from blue‑check accounts that pay for X's premium service and may receive money based on engagement, even when what they share is false. Under Elon Musk's ownership, the platform has been repeatedly criticised for allowing misinformation to flourish during major breaking stories.
One clip posted by a verified account claimed to show ballistic missiles streaking over Dubai; the footage was in fact from Iranian missiles fired at Tel Aviv in October 2024. That mislabelled video was viewed more than 4.4 million times.
Another much‑shared sequence appeared to depict an Israeli fighter jet being shot down by Iranian air defences. Despite one post passing 3.5 million views, there have been no credible reports of Israeli aircraft being downed over Iran on the night in question.
Pro‑Iranian accounts also pushed exaggerated or fabricated claims of success. The 'Iran Observer' account wrote, in capital letters, 'IRANIAN MISSILE IMPACT IN TEL AVIV RIGHT NOW' above an image of Dubai's skyline. That post was seen over 200,000 times before being removed, though other versions of the same image and claim remained live.
The Tehran Times shared an image that open source analysts suggested was generated by artificial intelligence, asserting that an American radar in Qatar had been destroyed in a drone strike. Analysts noted that while there were reports of attacks targeting US interests in Bahrain, there was no confirmation of any similar strike in Qatar.
The fog of claims extended back to Iran itself. A pro‑Trump, blue‑check account posted what it said were "before and after" pictures of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's palace. The "after" image appeared consistent with damage from recent strikes, but the "before" shot showed the Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini on the opposite side of Tehran.
X To Crack Down On Creators Peddling Undeclared AI War Videos
Earlier this month, X announced it will temporarily block such accounts from earning money through its Creator Revenue Sharing scheme if they post artificial conflict videos without an explicit AI label, a change announced three days after US and Israeli forces began strikes against Iran and the region slid into a new cycle of violence.
X's head of product, wrote in a post that 'during times of war, it is critical that people have access to authentic information on the ground', and warned that modern AI tools have 'lowered the bar' for producing content that can mislead viewers.
Under the revised rules, creators who upload AI‑generated clips of armed conflict without 'adequate disclosure' will be removed from the Creator Revenue Sharing programme for 90 days. Bier said repeat breaches would result in a permanent ban from the scheme, cutting off a key income stream for some of the platform's most active accounts.
Responding to a user's question, Bier explained that contributors are expected to use X's built‑in labelling system. They must open the in‑post menu, select 'Add Content Disclosures' and then apply the 'Made with AI' tag so viewers can see at a glance that the footage is not real‑world video.
The new penalties arrived just days after a Wired investigation described X as being "drowned" in misinformation about the latest conflict in Iran.
