When Down is Up: Top 10 Iranian State Media False Claims of Losses by Israel
What happened: Iranian state media and pro-Iran sources are spreading false and unsubstantiated claims about Israeli losses following the country’s June 13, 2025, offensive against Tehran, in a bid to portray the attack as a failure.
Context: On June 13, Israel launched an extensive strike against Iranian nuclear and military sites, killing senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders and scientists and crippling air defenses in a bid to degrade or destroy Iran’s nuclear weapon efforts, according to The Associated Press and other media outlets.
A closer look: By June 16, NewsGuard identified 10 false Iranian narratives about the strikes, many of which appeared within hours of the Israeli offensive and were amplified by state media and pro-Iran and military-linked Telegram channels. Among them:
Fake jet takedown: Most prominently, Iranian state media outlets including PressTV (Trust Score: 7.5/100) and the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency (Trust Score 7.5/100) claimed that Iran shot down two Israeli F-35 jets and captured a female Israeli pilot.
As supposed evidence, Iranian state media displayed a photo purporting to show a downed F-35 jet and an image of “Sarah Ahronot,” the supposed captured pilot. The image was also widely shared by Russian and Chinese state media.
Actually: There is no evidence that Iran shot down any Israeli F-35 jets. Col. Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), told news outlets, “This news being spread by Iranian media is completely baseless.” BBC Verify reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh noted on X that the wing, exhaust, and fuselage in the image are inconsistent with real F-35 jets.
Moreover, NewsGuard conducted a reverse image search of the “Sarah Ahronot” image and found that the photo was from December 2021 and actually shows a Chilean Navy lieutenant named Daniela Figueroa Scholz.
Commander death hoax: Pro-Iranian accounts are also falsely claiming that Israeli Navy Commander “David Salami” was killed in an Iranian airstrike, which they said directly targeted Salami and represented a triumph for Iranian military intelligence capabilities.
Actually: The current commander of the Israeli Navy is David Saar Salama, not “Salami,” and there are no credible reports that he was killed. Israel authorities said that as of June 16, 24 people have been killed by Iranian missiles, all of whom were civilians, according to news reports.
Phony Greek escape: Iranian sources, including the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (Trust Score: 7.5/100), falsely claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fled to Greece, framing it as an act of cowardice ahead of Iran’s expected retaliation.
The sources cited as evidence a flight map showing that Netanyahu’s official aircraft traveled from Israel to Greece on June 13.
Actually: The aircraft’s sole passenger was the Israeli ambassador to Greece, Noam Katz, after commercial air traffic in Israel was suspended, according to news reports. Netanyahu was photographed at a security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on June 13, and local news reports indicate that he met with his security cabinet on June 14 in an underground bunker.
The other seven examples of false claims spread by pro-Iran media:
A video shows the Tel Aviv-based Mossad headquarters in flames
U.S. military jets refueled Israeli planes that participated in Israel’s attack on Iran
A video shows mass destruction at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport
Pakistan threatened nuclear action against Israel
Israel relocated its civilian aircraft fleet to Turkey
A photo proves that Iranian supreme leader’s advisor Ali Shamkhani was not killed
Azerbaijani military jets were seen flying near the Iranian border in June 2025
Zooming out: NewsGuard has found that Iranian state media has previously circulated fabricated images and videos in an attempt to inflate its military successes and downplay losses. Meanwhile, according to reports from independent media, amid the strikes, Iran has arrested at least 14 Iranian citizens and accused them of supporting Israel by spreading “disinformation.”
This article was originally published in Reality Check’s newsletter. Subscribe to receive weekly updates straight to your inbox.