A photo (here, here, and here) that purportedly depicts the American Navy Intelligence vessel ‘USS Liberty’ engulfed in smoke has been gaining traction on social media. The claim suggests that the ship was hit by a barrage of Iranian missiles off the coast of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. We verify this claim in this fact-checking article.
Claim: The photo shows a damaged USS Liberty Navy vessel hit by Iranian missiles in Bahrain.
Fact: The photo does not depict the USS Liberty Navy vessel. Rather, it shows a decommissioned US Navy ship named the USS Ingraham, which was intentionally sunk by the US joint forces during a naval exercise. The USS Liberty, a US Navy technical research ship, was attacked by the Israeli army back in June 1967. As of now, there is no USS Liberty in the US Navy fleet. Hence, the claim made in the post is rated as False.
To verify the claim made in the viral post, an internet search was conducted using relevant keywords. The aim was to identify any news reports about an attack on the USS Liberty by Iranian missiles in the Persian Gulf. However, no such reports were found.
To understand more about the ship shown in the viral photo, a reverse image search was done. This led to a few articles (here and here) dating back to 2021, describing the ship as the decommissioned US Navy ship named USS Ingraham.
Reportedly (here and here), the USS Ingraham was destroyed and sunk by the US joint forces during a drill known as the Sinking Exercise (SINKEX) in Hawaii.
Further research revealed that the US Navy did operate a ship called the USS Liberty in the past. This vessel was attacked by the Israeli forces during the 1967 ‘Six-Day War’. However, according to the current US Navy website, there is no functional navy vessel named USS Liberty in their fleet.
To sum up, the photo shared does not depict the USS Liberty as claimed. Instead, it shows the USS Ingraham, a decommissioned US Navy ship that was sunk intentionally during a naval exercise.
