Throughout the day, several news sites have taken steps to disown the photograph that they ran on Wednesday, including and. Only one of them was said to be a Shahab 3. Had taken flight in all, though the intelligence data was still being sorted out. One defense official said that “at least 7, and possibly up to 10″ Later, it published an article quoting several experts backing that argument.Īlong with major doubts about the image, American intelligence officials had larger questions on exactly how many missiles were fired. The fourth missile “has apparentlyīeen added in digital retouch to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test,” the agency said. Sepah apparently published the three-missile version of the image today without further explanation.įor its part, Agence France-Presse retracted its four-missile version this morning, saying that the image was “apparently digitally altered” by Iranian state media. So far, though, it can’tīe said with any certainty whether there is any official Iranian involvement in this instance. 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.ĭoes Iran’s state media use Photoshop? The charge has been leveled before. The contours of the billowing smoke match perfectly near the ground, as well in the immediate Press distributed what appeared to be a nearly identical photo from the same source, but without the fourth missile.Īs the above illustration shows, the second missile from the right appears to be the sum of two other missiles in the image.

But there was no sign of it there later in the day. Eastern time on Wednesday.Īgence France-Presse said that it obtained the image from the Web site of Sepah News, the media arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, on Wednesday.

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