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Images circulating on social media that claim to show Turkish-made Siper or Hisar air defense systems deployed near the presidential palace in Damascus are artificial intelligence (AI)-generated fabrications.
The images, which have spread across social media platforms, claim Türkiye deployed the air defense systems near the Syrian presidential palace, though the exact system shown has not been independently confirmed by any official source.
Arda Mevlutoglu, a defense industry analyst, wrote on the social media platform X that the widely shared photo was fabricated.
"The attached photo began circulating today along with claims that air defense systems had been deployed at the Presidential Palace in Damascus. However, as can be seen especially from the structures resembling the missile launcher in the middle, this is an obvious artificial intelligence product," Mevlutoglu wrote.
The circulation of the images came roughly a week after Israel carried out airstrikes on Syria's Abu al-Duhur military airbase in Idlib province, an attack that significantly raised tensions between Türkiye and Israel.
Israeli aircraft carried out eight strikes on the runway of the Abu al-Duhur Military Airbase on Aug. 18, damaging its infrastructure.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the strike was intended to prevent Turkish forces from establishing a presence at the base, telling an army radio podcast that Israel would "not tolerate a Turkish military entrenchment moving southward, because it threatens us."
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Türkiye's Ministry of National Defense (MoND) rejected the justification, saying no Turkish military delegation was present at the airbase before or during the attack.
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