Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has made unsubstantiated claims about massive American military casualties that US officials are calling completely false.
According to reporting from The Media Line, IRGC spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini told the Tasnim News Agency late Monday night that 650 US service members had been killed or wounded during the initial 48 hours of current military operations. Naini specifically alleged that “160 American casualties were recorded in the targeting of a US military headquarters in Bahrain alone.”
However, US military officials have only acknowledged six confirmed service member deaths, with three of those fatalities occurring during an attack on an American military installation in Kuwait. The Iranian spokesperson also asserted that IRGC forces launched four cruise missiles at the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and repeatedly struck the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain with missiles and drones. Additionally, he claimed Iranian naval missiles “severely struck” the combat support vessel MST.
US Central Command has firmly rejected these assertions, previously stating that IRGC missiles failed to reach American naval vessels and denying reports of significant damage to US military facilities and equipment throughout the region.
This pattern of disputed claims has emerged before. Iranian media outlets initially reported that US fighter jets which crashed in Kuwait on Monday were shot down by Iranian forces, but these reports were later removed when it became clear the incidents involved friendly fire.
On the same day, Tasnim News Agency reported that a Kheibar missile had struck Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, leaving “his fate uncertain.” However, Netanyahu was already making public appearances in Beit Shemesh, which had been targeted by IRGC missiles, with international news networks broadcasting his visit live.
Similar false reporting occurred during last year’s 12-day conflict, when Iranian state media claimed to have shot down Israeli aircraft and captured a female Israeli pilot. These claims were later retracted, becoming a source of widespread ridicule among Iranian social media users.
