A video authentically shows a Pakistani-flagged oil tanker burning in the Strait of Hormuz after being struck by Iran in March 2026.
The footage appears to show the Malta-flagged Safeen Prestige, which was reportedly struck twice in the Strait of Hormuz in March 2026. According to online databases, the Safeen Prestige is a container ship, not an oil tanker. Snopes could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage, nor claims that Iran was behind the reported strikes on the ship.
In March 2026, a video (archived) circulated online that social media users claimed showed a Pakistani-flagged oil tanker burning in the Strait of Hormuz after being struck by Iran.
Claims about the video circulated as Trump administration officials worked to reopen the strait, through which roughly 25% of the world’s seaborne oil transit normally flows. Iran effectively closed the strait after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in late February 2026 and started a war in the Middle East.
One Instagram account that posted the video wrote:
A Pakistan flagged oil tanker was destroyed by Iranian missiles few hours earlier while crossing strait of Hormuz. Pakistan has earlier betrayed Iran by re-routing Iranian oil to US. This is a reply by Iran to Pakistan
A post on Reddit (archived) also claimed the ship in question sailed under the flag of Pakistan. Other posts on X (archived) and Facebook (archived) identified the burning ship as only an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
The footage appeared to show the Safeen Prestige, a container ship sailing under the flag of Malta. The ship’s name was visible on its bow (front) in the footage.
Because the footage show neither a Pakistani-flagged vessel nor an oil tanker and there was no confirmation that Iran struck the vessel in question, we found that social media users miscaptioned the clip. Snopes could not independently verify whether the footage was authentic (meaning not generated or edited using artificial intelligence or other digital tools).
According to maritime monitoring bodies, the Safeen Prestige was exiting the Strait of Hormuz when an “unknown projectile” hit the vessel on March 4, 2026, causing a fire. Another report said the ship may have been hit again on or around March 18. It was unclear who was behind the reported strikes, or whether the video in question showed the aftermath of either.
We contacted IACC Holdings, the company that owns the Safeen Prestige, for more information about the ship and video and await a reply.
What we know about the footage
According to reverse image searches on TinEye and Google, the footage of the Safeen Prestige circulated online starting on March 27, 2026. It was unclear who recorded it. Aside from the name on the bow, the ship in the video matched images of the Safeen Prestige on MarineTraffic.com, a ship-tracking site.
The U.K. Royal Navy-led Maritime Trade Operations Centre, which provides security information for maritime shipping, reported (archived) that an “unknown projectile” hit the Safeen Prestige while it was passing through the Strait of Hormuz near Oman on March 4, 2026.
The crew abandoned the vessel and there were no reported injuries, according to the center. The U.N.’s International Maritime Organization also reported the March 4 strike on the Safeen Prestige. According to both reports, a projectile struck the Safeen Prestige, causing hull damage and a fire in the engine room.
Human Rights Watch, a nongovernmental organization that investigates and reports on human rights abuses, reported that it had not been able to confirm who was behind the March 4 strike on the Safeen Prestige. Reports from maritime monitoring bodies also did not assign blame for the incident.
Around two weeks later, on March 18, TankerTrackers.com, an oil shipment tracker site, reported (archived) that the Safeen Prestige appeared to be “suddenly” burning due to a suspected second strike. The ship was reportedly still located north of Oman.
Snopes contacted the tracking site to ask about the satellite imagery it used to support its report. We await a reply to our query.
The Maritime Trade Operations Centre and International Maritime Organization had not reported a second strike on the Safeen Prestige at the time of this writing.
Given that both reported incidents involved a fire on board the Safeen Prestige, it remained unclear when the video, if authentic, was recorded. The condition of the Safeen Prestige was unclear at the time of this writing.
For further reading, Snopes has reported extensively on claims related to the Iran war.