Photo: Real or embellishment?

Distributed by Agence France-Presse

Distributed by AP

Newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post and The Boston Globe published on their Thursday front pages a photo of four missiles being launched in a test by Iran. The photo was first made public by the media arm of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

Now there are questions about whether the photo was manipulated. Agence France-Presse, which distributed the photo, has retracted the image.

In a story on its Web site, The New York Times posted an illustration of how the photo could have been changed with the use of photo-editing software. A photo distributed by The Associated Press shows three missiles being launched. The other photo, which was published in the large U.S. newspapers and in An-Nahar in Beirut, Lebanon, shows four.

Agence France-Presse was quoted as saying the fourth missile “has apparently been added in digital retouch” by Iranian state media “to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test.”

Today, Iran Daily published a photo of the missile testing, along with a story headlined "Preparing for Defense." Also on the Tehran newspaper's front page was a look at "extensive coverage by the regional and western media" of the missile testing. The Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune have small images of the real photo with references to inside stories about the manipulation. "Iranian missile photo appers to be faked," the Chicago Tribune said.