Since launching the navy marketing campaign in opposition to Iran on Feb. 28, the US and Israel have dropped hundreds of bombs on the nation. Movies of explosions have change into a supply of misinformation and misunderstanding, with lots of the strikes incorrectly attributed to a specific munition and plenty of explosive results – seen in footage and pictures falsely attributed to “thriller” or unlawful weapons.
IMPORTANT UPDATE AND NOTE: The next isn’t a whole evaluation and I require extra knowledge to confirm first use. This can be a floor stage remark however it have to be famous.
☢️ The US used what seems to be, with out extra particulars, a nuclear weapon on Iran delivered by a… pic.twitter.com/7ucJNdGyNi
— Korobochka (コロボ) 🇦🇺✝️ (@cirnosad) March 11, 2026
The put up seems to counsel {that a} nuclear explosion occurred in Iran. Supply: X/cirnosad
“The video doesn’t present a nuclear explosion—one thing that I’m astonished even must be clarified,” Dr NR Jenzen-Jones, Director of Armament Analysis Companies, a weapons intelligence consultancy, informed Bellingcat.
Mushroom clouds can kind when explosions produce sizzling gases that rapidly rise and encounter resistance from denser, colder air. (Clouds created by nuclear weapons also can fluctuate considerably in look.)
“Sure forms of explosive munitions, corresponding to these engaged on the fuel-air explosive (FAE) and thermobaric ideas, are significantly poorly understood by non-specialists. In consequence, these and different forms of munitions are routinely misidentified,” Jenzen-Jones mentioned.
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Typically posts about explosives are incorrect or inaccurate due to a lack of awareness about how explosives work, however in different instances misinterpretations are deliberate. Joe Dyke, director of programmes at Airwars, informed Bellingcat that deliberate disinformation that shifts accountability of a strike is the most typical they see, with posts typically sharing flimsy however “scientific sounding” evaluation.
Higher understanding explosives could make it simpler to determine misinformation surrounding explosions.
This information explains explosives, their traits and the affect they’ve on folks and infrastructure. We spotlight the variations between thermobaric and Dense Inert Steel Explosives (DIME), two forms of explosives which might be ceaselessly the topic of misinformation.
What Are Explosives?
Explosives are energetic supplies able to inflicting dying and destruction by a fast launch of power. The blast creates stress waves emanating from the epicentre. These waves can instantly kill or injure folks and shatter objects into deadly fragments.
Excessive explosives are usually utilized in warheads and shells; they differ from low explosives which are sometimes utilized in rocket propellants. The supersonic pace of the explosive reaction- categorised as detonation- additionally separates the 2 sorts of explosives. Throughout detonation, temperatures can rise above 3,000 °C, however solely briefly and really near the response zone, Dr Sabrina Wahler, a Postdoctoral Scholar on the California Institute of Know-how specializing in analysis of detonation merchandise informed Bellingcat.
The detonation creates a shockwave, which is a visual wave or bubble in excessive pace movies. The shockwave impacts folks and objects earlier than the sound of the blast will be heard.
The shockwave is the results of the stress pushing air away from the blast within the optimistic part. When the air rushes again within the destructive part, it creates a suction impact.
The shockwave arrival time, mixed with a identified distance, has been used to estimate the explosive weight of blasts, together with the Beirut explosion in 2020.
Reactive supplies, corresponding to aluminium powder, are sometimes added to explosives to enhance efficiency. These metals react with the gaseous merchandise from the detonation, leading to elevated power output, Jacqueline Akhavan, a Professor of Explosive Chemistry at Cranfield College, informed Bellingcat.
Typically, reactive metals corresponding to aluminium from the explosive composition will be seen burning outdoors the fireball, indicating an explosive with reactive steel.
The scale of a fireball doesn’t essentially point out the blast’s energy. In films and airshows, a “Hollywood shot” includes igniting massive quantities of gasoline with small quantities of explosives, creating spectacular fireballs with minimal stress.
Thermobaric, and dense inert steel explosives (DIME), are different forms of explosive compositions the place metals are added to change particular results.
Thermobaric Explosives
In January 2024, after an assault in Gaza, social media posts appeared claiming that thermobaric explosives “actually sucks the air out of the youngsters’s lungs and causes them to internally explode”. In accordance with an article by Dr Rachel Lance, a biomedical engineer specialising in patterns of harm and trauma from explosions “there isn’t any proof that thermobarics pull the air out of the lungs”.
There have been additionally claims that thermobaric weapons incinerate folks. In accordance with a report by the Armament Analysis Companies, the consequences of any such explosion “are of the identical nature as these anticipated from a traditional excessive explosive”. The one distinction is that the length of every impact is prone to be longer from just a few milliseconds to tens of milliseconds and in a stress wave with a decrease peak.
This happens as a result of thermobaric explosives add a major quantity of gasoline or reactive metals to the explosive composition. A few of the gasoline burns after detonation. These munitions are efficient in opposition to cave or bunker techniques, because the stress wave can journey additional all through the construction.
Visible variations can point out the forms of explosives used. Even inside the identical class, explosives could seem totally different due to variations in chemical composition, situations the place the explosion happens, and video high quality.
TÜBİTAK SAGE’den yerli termobarik patlayıcıda yeni bir adım daha!
Kapalı alanlarda yüksek darbe ve sıcaklık etkinliğine sahip yeni bir termobarik patlayıcı💥
TENDÜREK’ten sonra KOR ile geleneksel patlayıcılara göre 4 kat daha yüksek sıcaklık etkinliği 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/N4yZ8YvMi9
— TÜBİTAK SAGE (@SageTubitak) March 5, 2020
Comparability of KOR, a thermobaric explosive, and TNT, in a take a look at by TÜBİTAK SAGE, a Turkish Protection Analysis Group. Supply: X/TÜBİTAK SAGE.
Many international locations, together with the US, Russia, China, Ukraine, Iran and Turkey, use enhanced blast and thermobaric explosives. Russia has used them in Ukraine and Syria. Israel makes use of munitions which have variants that includes thermobaric warheads, however the usage of thermobaric explosives has not been confirmed.
Gas-air explosives are just like thermobaric explosives, however operate in another way. Each are volumetric weapons, however fuel-air explosives disperse a cloud of gasoline, then the explosion happens.
Dense Inert Steel Explosives
Unsubstantiated claims of DIME munitions have commonly surfaced since 2006, after they have been first alleged to have been used in Gaza. Comparable claims have reappeared in Gaza for the reason that struggle started on Oct. 7, 2023.
Dense Inert Steel Explosives (DIME) are usually utilized in munitions meant to cut back civilian hurt. Non-reactive metals, like tungsten, added to the explosives cut back the realm impacted by the blast, however enhance the ability. Typically munitions crammed with DIME change metal casing with carbon fibre to cut back fragmentation.
Some sources seek advice from DIME as a multiphase blast explosive, a time period that additionally covers some explosives with reactive metals. Pictures from testing present mannequins close to the blast coated in tungsten powder.
Some claims of DIME use in Gaza point out the presence of powder or microscopic shrapnel discovered on victims. “Peppering” and “tattooing” are talked about (warning: graphic content material) as frequent accidents in blast victims, the place the explosion propels small particles like sand into the physique, together with fragments of assorted sizes.
The US Air Drive has accepted supply of no less than 500 DIME-filled GBU-39A/B bombs, and has used no less than 23 in fight. No transfers of GBU-39 A/B FLM bombs from the US to every other nation, together with Israel, have been reported, and a Bellingcat evaluation of GBU-39 strikes in Gaza between October 2023 and January 2026 didn’t discover any proof of this variant getting used.
There may be presently no conclusive proof that militaries except for the US have used DIME in fight.
Clues From Clouds
Clouds, and the colors of the smoke can present clues about the kind of explosive. Nonetheless, chemical composition, environmental situations, and site can all have an effect on how explosions seem.
Clouds
This footage, initially posted on social media in November 2025, reveals an explosion in Gaza.
The Israeli military launched thermobaric and stress bombs, provided by america, on Gaza. These bombs, which burn at a temperature of three,500 levels Celsius, are able to killing hundreds in seconds, leaving no hint. pic.twitter.com/pZhoIfsazP
— China pulse 🇨🇳 (@Eng_china5) February 12, 2026
Video of an explosion in Gaza, falsely attributed as a thermobaric weapon. Supply: X/@Eng_china5.
The seen cloud within the video is a condensation or Wilson cloud, brought on by an explosive shockwave interacting with humid air. This identical impact is seen in movies of the Beirut explosion in 2020, when ammonium nitrate exploded on the port after a hearth.
One other view of the explosions in Beirut pic.twitter.com/efT5VlpMkj
— Borzou Daragahi 🖊🗒 (@borzou) August 4, 2020
Video of the 2020 Beirut ammonium nitrate explosion. Supply: X/Borzou Daragahi.
Smoke colors
Colors within the smoke of an explosion may help determine the gases, which in flip may help determine the explosive materials, Dr Rachel Lance informed Bellingcat. “Yellow, orange, and pink tones every point out the presence of particular chemical substances.”
Black smoke means “the bomb produced loads of hearth and inefficiency, as a result of supplies burned as an alternative of detonated, and was most likely a do-it-yourself or improvised explosive”. White or mild gray smoke signifies “an environment friendly detonation, and that tells us it was a pure, high-grade materials inside,” Lance mentioned.
Some munitions, like cruise or ballistic missiles, could have environment friendly excessive explosives, in addition to low explosive propellants or gasoline. The realm focused, corresponding to buildings, could result in mud or particles that obscure the gases created by the explosion.
In some instances, a number of brilliant fireballs are launched into the sky, accompanied by a fast buzzing or throbbing sound and brilliant flashes. This usually occurs when solid-fuel rocket motors, like these in air defence or ballistic missiles, are burning or exploding.
Main secondary explosions after a U.S. airstrike within the neighborhood of Higuerote Airport in Venezuela tonight. pic.twitter.com/NrFOVj9IfM
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) January 3, 2026
Venezuelan Buk Air Protection System rocket motors ‘cooking off’ after being focused by US strikes in Jan. 2026. Supply: X/Osinttechnical.
Geolocation
Geolocation of the explosion web site may help determine or rule out potential explanations. Giant explosions will be brought on by a lot smaller bombs hitting storage websites or manufacturing websites for ammo. The geolocation of the video beneath indicated that the situation hit was a storage space for missiles.
Qom immediately seems to be prefer it was hit by a GBU 57 bunker buster.
The GBU 57 Huge Ordnance Penetrator is a 30,000 pound bunker busting bomb designed to penetrate deep underground earlier than detonating. pic.twitter.com/d4bGJ19nQb
— Open Supply Intel (@Osint613) March 11, 2026
Video shared by a person claiming this video reveals the usage of a GBU-57 “Huge Ordnance Penetrator”. A now-suspended person claimed the video confirmed the “Mom of All Bombs”. Supply: Osint613.
Blast Results on Individuals
Misinformation concerning blast results on folks would possibly result in reviews of hurt to be wrongly dismissed or false claims about thriller weapons to unfold.
In February 2026, claims of “vaporisation” or disintegration of individuals attributable to thermobaric weapon explosions appeared on-line. Days later, counterclaims argued that explosives can’t “disintegrate” folks and thermal results weren’t accountable.
In accordance with a number of research, even much less highly effective explosives may cause disintegration. When explosions happen in enclosed areas, corresponding to inside a constructing, they mirror shock waves, resulting in elevated blast results.
Blast accidents are usually categorised into 4 classes, based mostly on what mechanism is inflicting the accidents.
The main impact, the blast itself, “places great strains on human tissue, inflicting them to tear and tear, each internally and externally, so huge inside bleeding can happen,” Brian Castner, a weapons investigator for Amnesty Worldwide, informed Bellingcat.
Main accidents can result in a wide range of signs, together with vertigo, vomiting blood, and bleeding from the ears. A viral put up shared by the White Home Press Secretary claimed to be firsthand testimony from a Venezuelan safety guard following US strikes in Venezuela. The put up alleged that the US used a sonic weapon with none supporting proof, and the signs described are typical of main blast accidents.
The secondary impact outcomes from the steel fragments of the munition. Some weapons are particularly designed to interrupt into uniform small items, Castner mentioned. “Even small fragments, the dimensions of a bullet, can break a bone, for the reason that steel is flying by the air so rapidly,” the weapons investigator defined.
Even single fragments can injure or kill folks lots of of metres away from a blast. Individuals near it could be largely disintegrated, typically described (warning: graphic content material) as “complete physique disruption” in Forensic Drugs.
“Mixed, these blast and fragmentary results can do horrific injury to the human physique, and if an individual is shut sufficient to a big munitions detonation, go away little hint they ever existed,” Castner informed Bellingcat.
A latest Bellingcat investigation into three particular US-made munitions utilized in Gaza discovered movies displaying small items of human our bodies in step with complete physique disruption, at a number of totally different strikes inside the dataset.
Explosions also can trigger burns or thermal accidents. Temperature isn’t probably the most related issue, as a result of “by the point a human physique is uncovered to the temperatures of a burning explosive, folks can have extreme trauma and dying,” Dr Lance informed Bellingcat.
In lots of real-world instances “the blast stress reaches farther than the thermal flash,” Dr Sabrina Wahler mentioned. “The thermal hazard turns into a lot bigger and longer lasting when the explosion happens in a confined house, when the formulation helps continued burning with air, or when the detonation triggers secondary fires that preserve producing warmth nicely after the preliminary blast,” she famous.
Flash burns are sometimes seen on uncovered components of the physique near the blast (warning: graphic content material). Explosions that begin fires or comprise incendiary supplies may end up in extreme burns.
Are These Explosives Authorized?
Misinformation typically raises questions on legality, with false claims that particular weapons are inherently unlawful or misrepresenting how they work. This is among the causes that nations conduct authorized critiques of latest weapons, Michael Meier, a former Senior Advisor to the Military Choose Advocate Normal for Legislation of Battle, and present Adjunct Professor at Georgetown College Legislation Middle, informed Bellingcat.
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Thermobarics and DIME are authorized if their use complies with particular ideas of worldwide humanitarian legislation (IHL) and the legislation of armed battle (LOAC), corresponding to proportionate and discriminate use, consultants informed Bellingcat.
“Even lawful weapons can be utilized in an illegal method”, Michael Meier mentioned. One instance is when they’re directed in opposition to civilians or when they’re utilized in a way that breaches the ideas of distinction or proportionality, he defined.
“The legislation’s potential to forestall hurt is constrained by the compromises between navy necessity and humanity made in its creation,” Dr Arthur van Coller, Professor of Worldwide Humanitarian Legislation on the STADIO Larger Training and a authorized skilled on thermobaric explosives, informed Bellingcat.
“In consequence, weapons that trigger immense destruction could stay lawful (even nuclear weapons) in the event that they match inside authorized definitions, even when their humanitarian affect is extreme,” van Coller defined.
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