Ali Larijani, the head of Iran's National Security Council, has claimed that his country has captured United States soldiers since the outbreak of war last week. In a post on Saturday on the social media platform X, Larijani suggested the US was concealing the captures, writing: "It has been reported to me that several American soldiers have been taken prisoner, but the Americans claim they have been killed in action. Despite their futile efforts, the truth is not something they can hide for too long."
The US military quickly refuted these claims. US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins responded to Larijani's post, stating: "The Iranian regime is doing everything it can to peddle lies and deceive. This is yet another clear example." A spokesperson from US Central Command (CENTCOM) echoed this denial in a statement to Al Jazeera Arabic.
At least six members of the US armed forces have been killed since the war began on February 28, following a joint US-Israeli attack. The administration of US President Donald Trump dubbed the military campaign "Operation Epic Fury." Iran's Tasnim news agency reported this week that an estimated 1,332 people have been killed in the war, including approximately 180 children who died in a strike on a school in the southeastern city of Minab.
An analysis from The New York Times suggested the school was struck by the US, but Trump, while taking questions from reporters on board Air Force One, blamed Iran. On Saturday, he said: "Based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran." Trump spent the day traveling between his resort in South Florida, where he was hosting Latin American officials, and Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the bodies of the killed soldiers were transferred.
Trump struck an upbeat note about the war's progress, calling it "as good as it could be" and claiming: "We're winning the war by a lot. We've decimated their whole evil empire" in reference to Iran. However, Trump has yet to rule out deploying US soldiers to Iran, refusing to commit either way in an interview with The New York Post last Monday.
The war has divided Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, with some expressing frustration over the president's latest military offensive. Critics pointed out that Trump campaigned for re-election on the promise not to "fight endless wars." Conservative media host Megyn Kelly posted on social media on Friday in response to reports that Trump was considering "boots on the ground" in Iran, writing: "I honestly can't believe we're doing this again."
A poll on Friday from NPR, PBS, and the research firm Marist found that a majority of US citizens disapproved of the war. Of the 1,591 adults surveyed, 56 percent opposed the conflict. Al Jazeera correspondent Kimberly Halkett noted: "This is an unpopular war, according to all the polling data we've seen in the last week. Most Americans believe that this is one that cannot be afforded—in terms of the potential loss of life, given that six Americans have now been killed and their bodies returned to the United States."
Source: www.aljazeera.com