Richard Irvine-Brown

A screengrab of Google Maps's satellite image of the hilly countryside around Nabatieh, southern Lebanon. The names of the towns Toul, Kfar Roummane and Kfat Tebnit have been highlighted and lines drawn between them to make a triangle around Nabatieh.

So, three confirmed incidents on the same afternoon, around the city of Nabatieh.

It's the heart of the Nabatieh region, where we verified multiple strikes in September and October 2024.

Panorama view taken from screengrabs of a social media video of destruction on a main road, including the partial collapse of a building, in Toul, southern Lebanon, 5 March 2026.

Composite image of (left) screengrab from social media video showing explosion in distance, filmed from main road through Kfar Roummane, southern Lebanon, 5 March 2026. (Right) Same place seen on Google Maps satellite image. The two have had the same landmarks highlighted: A tall central reservation, a telegraph pole in the middle of a thoroughfare, a building with an oddly-shaped roof/facade, and another taller building with balconies.

The other incident mentioned was in Toul. Below is a panorama taken from the video Emma verified and I peer reviewed.

Soon after, a third video, showing an explosion, was located to the main road through nearby Kfar Roummane. Screenshot and location comparison (33.389661, 35.491080) also below.

Panorama of three screenshots from the same social media video showing damage to a site in Kfar Tebnit, southern Lebanon, 5 March 2026.

Screengrab from Google Maps satellite view of Kfar Tebnit, southern Lebanon, with a pin dropped on a roof. The area is semi-rural, with many small bunches of trees and open fields, and a tight bunching of buildings to the north of the pin.

Then Emma and I worked together to assess damage across southern Lebanon: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6...

The image used in the post above is from Kfar Tebnit. Below is a quasi-panorama taken from the video we used to assess the damage. And the POV (facing south) pin at 33.350743, 35.512809.

Composite image of (left) social media video of car on fire; (right) screengrab from Google streetview near Zahle, Lebanon. Both show a road, clear sky and buildings either side. Both have had a red-faced, double-pitch-roof building, an advertising building and the north facade of another building highlighted to show matches between the two.

Composite image from (top) social media video showing car on fire, and (bottom) screengrab from highway near Zahle Lebanon. The same building in each image has been highlighted.

As with Sidon, there's only one road near Zahle with both a median strip and large gaps between the buildings to match the video.

And there's partial streetview, allowing us to put the elements together, and lead us to the car dealership.

Both s/v grabs taken at 33.8473208,35.9307663.

Screengrab from a social media video showing people attending a car on fire near Zahle, Lebanon, morning of 5 March 2026.

Screengrab from a social media video filmed over the steering wheel of a parked car, showing another car on fire near Zahle, Lebanon, morning of 5 March 2026.

In return, Emma reviewed my work from Lebanon, where a video showed a burning car explode after rolling to a stop at what turned out to be a used car dealership: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6...

For taste & decency we didn't use the video or screengrabs, but here are grabs from the aftermath.

Across three videos we could see smoke already coming from the terminal before a projectile with a tail fin fell from the sky and exploded near the car park.

With a public place (again) always look at online map photos or their social pages to look for matching locations.

39.191102, 45.446884

Screengrab from social media video showing explosion close to the carpark of Nakchivan Airport, Azerbaijan, 5 March 2026.

Thursday, 5 March. Third day in four as verification lead in the Iran conflict.

First: Peer review and otherwise help @emmapengelly.bsky.social on Azerbaijan, proving at least one drone strike near the Nakchivan airport: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6...

As with Monday, BBC World Service's Outside Source came to the Verify desks to talk to many of us about what we'd seen throughout the day.

Here's my section, click to listen:

Screengrabs from video seen on SnapMap from Beirut, Lebanon, 3 March 2026. Several damaged shopfronts are seen, with debris scattered in front of them, including one shop on fire with a hole in the facade.

We also refer to shops damaged in Beirut. Here's a series of screenshots from SnapChat Maps.

33.850000, 35.502343

Snap is very popular across the Middle East, less so in Iran, and always worth checking. Not only for material to verify, but as a window into place, time and context.

Screengrab of Google Maps streetview of the Beirut-Said Highway in Sidon, Lebanon.

There's only one major road with an arboreal central reservation in Sidon, but there are several Al Baba shops. In this case it was the desert cafe.

POV 33.5734075,35.3845779, h/t @danict89.bsky.social for flagging the video.

There's even streetview for the point (a luxury in our reporting).

Panoramic composite image made from grabs from a social media video showing smoke in Sidon, Lebanon. To the left is a red-fronted commercial building, a central reservation with palm trees, and to the right is an ornate premises named Al Baba.

To help with geolocation, if possible, take frames and stick them together into a panorama to get a more complete sense of what you're looking at.

So, let's expand the screengrab above.

Staple geolocation clues: A road with a median strip, with palm trees, and the name of a premises, Al Baba.

Screengrab from a social media video showing smoke from a claimed explosion in Sidon, Lebanon, 3 March 2026.

Switching to the afternoon, a large explosion, claimed to be Israeli targeting, in Sidon, Lebanon, plus a burning shopfront in Beirut. (Review / oversight from @biancabritton.bsky.social)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cy...

Photo of entrance to the IRGC Muhammad Rasulallah General Command Centre, Tehran, Iran.

It's called the IRGC Muhammad Rasulallah general command centre, entrance at 35.709315, 51.438247.

Screengrab from Google Maps satellite image of central Tehran, showing an army complex to the north of Sepah Sq.

We could locate towers to screen right, be certain it was Tehran, and reverse-search frames from the video / check the weather to know the video was that morning.

But, by working out POV from the towers and timing the sight-sound delay of one explosion, we could know an army complex was targeted.

Screengrab from social media video of strikes on Sepah Sq, Tehran, 3 March. Large plumes of smoke appear in the distance, past several rooftops, scattering birds into the air.

Tuesday 3 March, video shared as strikes on Sepah Sq, central Tehran. Wikipedia and Google disagree on where the Sq is, so @shayan86.bsky.social have to be certain of where we're looking at and what the target was. (Peer review from @emmapengelly.bsky.social.)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cy...

Outside Source on BBC World Service radio has also been an outlet to make the most of Verify work since our very first day three years ago.

Monday 2 March included their broadcast from our desks, including a couple of minutes with me, talking about the work of the team.

Composite image: Top left and top right, screengrabs from social media video showing crash of F-15 jet beyond red-and-white scaffold tower and two pylons, west of Al Jahra, Kuwait. Bottom, same area on Google Maps on satellite imagery, with the tower and pylons marked.

As well as reviewing Kumar Malhotra and @danict89.bsky.social's work on the F-15 friendly fire incident.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv...

POV 29.335506, 47.648631

How-to hint: When looking for pylons, posts, or anything less visible from top down, look for their shadows.

Composite image of (left) screengrab from social media video showing heavy smoke at Aramco Oil Refinery, Saudi Arabia, Monday 2 March; (right) screengrab of tilted Google satellite image of same location. Both images have been marked up to show highlight pipes on the ground, a spherical fuel tank and distant industrial towers.

All when/where verification work at Verify is peer-reviewed.

Monday included my reviewing (as verification lead) of @emmapengelly.bsky.social's work on the Saudi oil refinery strike: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv...

POV: 26.690831, 50.096881

With verification work in busy cities, look for buildings which are unlike others (blue) and nearby confirmation landmarks (green).

Composite image of (left) screengrab from social media video and (right) screengrab from Google satellite image, oriented east. Both images are from Narmak, east Tehran. In both images a four-storey building building has been highlighted in green, and a much taller building highlighted in blue.

Over the weekend the US attacks began on Iran and, by Monday, our efforts were focused on the damage: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv...

The street-level video here was filmed at 35.731641, 51.503239.

Copernicus/Sentinel-2 satellite image with USS Gerald R Ford and closest visible ship marked.

When we did find the world's largest aircraft carrier, it was on the Copernicus website, from Sentinel-2 imagery, which constantly updates from all over the world with satellite pics.

For scale, here's a wider shot showing one of the Ford's accompanying destroyers about 30km to the NE.

Two screengrabs from a social media video showing an aircraft carrier, marked "2023 / NOT THIS CONFLICT"

Such was the interest in the Ford, as well as the livestreams mentioned, there were old clips being circulated on Twitter as contemporary.

Taking frames from those clips and putting them into search engines confirmed this, such as this example which we traced back to a TikTok from 2023.

BBC Verify live page graphic showing (left) the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier, seen by satellite, from Sentinel-2, Copernicus, on 27 February; (right) a map of the Middle East with Crete, Israel and Iran marked, as well as the location of the Ford.

THREAD
A long first week of the Iran conflict and a team effort by BBC Verify to supply news outlets.

Here's my contribution explained with how-to examples.

First, 24 hours' wait, we finally saw the USS Gerald R Ford after it left Crete. My piece with Barbara Metzler:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx...

My first girlfriend had the same album and the Joey Tempest poster up on her wall.

V bbc's Ghoncheh Habibiazad:
a woman who spoke to the BBC from Tehran 'says that “it is as if the sun has completely disappeared”.

“It was so scary when I woke up. It was as if it had completely turned into night. I can smell burnt fuel in the air,” another woman says.'

As well as ships, @leguape.bsky.social and I have been watching planes.

Here's what we can say about F-22s flying out of Lakenheath, to Israel, as US forces amass around Iran.

On the BBC Verify live page, yesterday: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7...

Composite image of screengrab from social media video (top) showing USS Gerald R Ford emerging from Souda Bay, filmed from the west, and screengrab from Google Maps satellite image (bottom), oriented east and tilted.

We first saw the Ford leaving Souda Bay in a video emerging around 8.20am GMT, which we could geolocate by the rise in the land behind it, and the outstretched bay in the foreground.

USS Gerald R Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, has left the Greek Island of Crete and appears to be heading towards the Middle East. Video filmed from a beach near Souda Bay where the US warship had been for several days shows the Ford sailing north-east into the Mediterranean this morning. BBC Verify’s analysis indicates that, if it travels at a cruising speed of about 20 knots, the vessel will take about a day to reach the eastern Mediterranean near Israel’s coast. Justin Crump, CEO of risk and intelligence firm Sibylline, told BBC Verify the Ford could remain in the eastern Mediterranean to "backstop operations" over Syria, Iraq and Israel. But that it is also possible the Ford’s carrier strike group could travel through the Suez Canal in Egypt and enter the Red Sea. Separately, we have also identified the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and six other warships in satellite imagery taken on Wednesday, 25 February, about 200 km (125 miles) off Oman’s coast.

The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, was seen leaving port, Souda Bay, Crete, heading to the Aegean Sea, and potentially on to the east Mediterranean Sea as part of US build-up around Iran.

With @leguape.bsky.social for the BBC Verify Live Page: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7...

Composite image showing (left) Yaqoob Mohammadi returned home, Sunday 22 February 2026; (right top) view of street where Mohammadi was taken; (right bottom) view of courtyard where Mohammadi was taken, Saturday 21 February 2026. Elements matching between the two have been highlighted.

The next morning, however, Mohammadi was returned to his home.

The crowd cheered, and Mohammadi thanked them for 'standing up' for him.

We could see this happening on the same street from which he was taken.

Screengrab of social media video showing crowd at home of Yaqoob Mohammadi, above screengrab of satellite image from Google Maps of the same location. A tree, a corner and a section of seating at a sports pitch have been highlighted on both.

In a video posted after sunset, we saw a crowd gathered at Mohammadi's home, claimed to be people supporting him.

As well as the angle of the junction, trees again came into play, but the giveaway was the exposed stand at the sports pitch nearby. Which helped us verify the earlier arrest location.