TEHRAN – Iran’s forensic organization has identified 3,753 people killed in the joint US-Israeli war in an effort launched on February 28 to assess the human toll of the invasion, the agency’s head announced.
Abbas Masjedi said the victims were identified using “scientific and professional methods”. Of the total number, 2,875 were men and 496 were women. He added that the dead also included foreigners, including nationals of Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, China, Iraq and Lebanon.
The announcement came as Iranian authorities released further details about the number of civilian casualties caused by the unprovoked American and Israeli military operations.
Majid Miadfar, head of Iran’s Emergency Situation Organization, also said the death toll included 260 women and 221 individuals under the age of 18, including 18 children under the age of five.
Miadfar said the deaths of 168 people, most of them girls, at Shajare Tayebeh Primary School in the southern city of Minab was one of the deadliest episodes of the war. On February 28, the first day of the invasion, a US missile hit the school.
Miadfar also detailed the extensive damage to Iran’s medical infrastructure. A total of 400 medical facilities, 57 emergency stations and 47 ambulances were attacked and damaged in the US and Israeli attacks. Two air ambulances and a sea ambulance were also heavily damaged.
Of the medical workers, 26 were martyred and 118 were injured. Seventy-eight of the injured were treating injured civilians at the time of the attack.
Despite indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear program, the United States and Israel have launched military operations. The attack included a series of attacks targeting both military facilities and civilian infrastructure across the country, resulting in numerous casualties and widespread destruction.
In response, Iran’s military conducted multiple retaliatory missile and drone operations targeting U.S. military positions in the Persian Gulf region and Israeli strongholds in cities such as Haifa and Tel Aviv, and vowed that no acts of aggression against the Iranian state would be tolerated. Iran and the United States agreed to a two-week ceasefire last week.