{
  "updated": "2026-08-14",
  "figures_from": "wars",
  "hero": {
    "image": "/records-data/context-img/iran-hero.jpg",
    "alt": "Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, 1951",
    "credit": "Mohammad Mossadegh, 1951, the elected leader the USA overthrew. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons."
  },
  "chapter_images": {
    "the-airliner-and-the-war-at-sea": {
      "image": "/records-data/context-img/iran-655.jpg",
      "alt": "Wreckage of Iran Air Flight 655, shot down by the USS Vincennes in 1988",
      "credit": "Wreckage of Iran Air Flight 655, 1988. IRNA, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons."
    },
    "the-school-in-minab": {
      "image": "/records-data/context-img/iran-minab.jpg",
      "alt": "The mass funeral of the children of the Minab Primary School for Girls, killed in the U.S. strike, March 2026",
      "credit": "Funeral of the Minab girls' school victims, 3 March 2026. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons."
    },
    "the-assassination": {
      "image": "/records-data/context-img/iran-soleimani.jpg",
      "alt": "Mourners at the funeral of Qassem Soleimani, Tehran, January 2020",
      "credit": "Funeral of Qassem Soleimani, Tehran, 2020. Mohammad Mohsenifar / Mehr News, CC BY 4.0."
    },
    "the-war-now": {
      "image": "/records-data/context-img/iran-hormuz.jpg",
      "alt": "A U.S. Navy warship passing an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz",
      "credit": "A U.S. Navy frigate passes a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Department of Defense, public domain."
    }
  },
  "figures": [
    { "label": "Killed, all sides", "value": "8,983 - 18,317", "period": "The whole war, since 28 Feb 2026", "source": "Independent trackers (WarCosts aggregate)", "as_of": "2026-08-08" },
    { "label": "Killed in U.S. strikes", "value": "50", "period": "8 Jul to 8 Aug 2026", "source": "Iranian officials, via Al Jazeera", "as_of": "2026-08-08", "floor": true },
    { "label": "U.S. air attacks on Iran", "value": "100", "period": "8 Jul to 8 Aug 2026", "source": "Al Jazeera strike mapping", "as_of": "2026-08-08", "floor": true },
    { "label": "U.S. service members killed", "value": "18 - 20", "period": "The whole war, to 8 Aug 2026", "source": "Public casualty lists, independently tallied", "as_of": "2026-08-08" }
  ],
  "tones": {
    "the-airliner-and-the-war-at-sea": "red",
    "the-school-in-minab": "red",
    "the-war-now": "red",
    "the-assassination": "ink",
    "the-war-israel-wanted": "ink",
    "the-war-washington-spent-twenty-years-refusing": "ink",
    "the-war-without-a-vote": "ink",
    "the-regime-in-tehran": "ink",
    "the-pattern-and-why-it-matters": "ink"
  },
  "fact_checks": [
    {
      "claim": "Iran started this war.",
      "verdict": "False",
      "fact": "Our own strike-by-strike record shows the USA struck first and then broke the ceasefire it had signed, twice. Iran's major moves, including closing the Strait of Hormuz, each followed a U.S. attack.",
      "source": "Crust News coverage; Trump's Wars record",
      "as_of": "2026-08"
    },
    {
      "claim": "Iran was racing to build a nuclear bomb.",
      "verdict": "Not supported",
      "fact": "Under the 2015 deal Iran's enrichment was capped far below weapons grade and verified repeatedly by the IAEA; the USA, not Iran, walked away in 2018. U.S. intelligence assessed in the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, with high confidence, that Iran halted its weapons programme in 2003, a finding later estimates left standing.",
      "source": "U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (2007); IAEA",
      "as_of": "2007"
    },
    {
      "claim": "The 1953 coup is a conspiracy theory.",
      "verdict": "Documented",
      "fact": "The CIA released documents in 2013 acknowledging its own role in overthrowing Iran's elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, and handing power back to the Shah.",
      "source": "CIA; National Security Archive",
      "as_of": "2013"
    },
    {
      "claim": "The U.S. strikes hit only military targets.",
      "verdict": "Contradicted",
      "fact": "A U.S. strike forced the evacuation of 211 cancer patients from a hospital in Ahvaz, and U.S. strikes on shipping killed civilian crews, including three Indian sailors whose deaths the military first denied.",
      "source": "Crust News coverage",
      "as_of": "2026-07"
    },
    {
      "claim": "Iran illegally closed the Strait of Hormuz.",
      "verdict": "Unsettled",
      "fact": "The transit-passage right the USA invokes was codified by UNCLOS, which the USA signed but never ratified, and which Iran signed in 1982 with a declaration that only states party to it may claim that right. Washington argues the rule is customary law binding on all; Tehran rejects that. No court has ruled.",
      "source": "UNCLOS; ICJ Corfu Channel (1949); The Conversation; Lawfare",
      "as_of": "2026"
    },
    {
      "claim": "The U.S. shot down Iran Air 655 by accident and apologised.",
      "verdict": "Half true",
      "fact": "The 1988 shoot-down killed all 290 civilians aboard, 66 of them children. In 1996 the USA paid $61.8 million in compensation at the International Court of Justice without admitting liability, never apologised, and awarded the ship's commander a Legion of Merit.",
      "source": "ICJ settlement (1996); historical record",
      "as_of": "1996"
    }
  ],
  "media": [],
  "related": []
}