The French news agency says Iran appears to have manipulated a photograph of missiles being fired into the air during a test launch this week.

The photograph shows four missiles shooting simultaneously into the air with plumes of smoke trailing behind them.

Agence France Pressesays it received the photograph from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' media agency, after Iran tested medium and long-range missiles on Wednesday.

           

Photo released on online service of  Iranian daily Jamejam shows three missiles rise into the air as a fourth remains in the launcher, 9 July 2008

This altered image was published by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' news website, adding a fourth successfully launched missile in place of the ground launcher at an undisclosed location in Iran, 09 Jul 2008

Thursday, the French news agency reports that defense analysts and photography experts agree Iran manipulated the photo through computer technology.

The experts say it appears there may have been only three missiles in the original photo. They say a fourth missile may have been added to the image by using elements from the smoke trail and dust clouds from two of the other missiles.

Photos of the four missiles were widely published on the Internet and on the front pages of newspapers around the world.

The United States condemned Iran's missile tests Wednesday. The White House says it has not verified Iran's reports of a second round of missile tests early Thursday.

VOA was among those news organizations that used the image.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.