Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council, claimed that his country has captured United States soldiers since the outbreak of war last week.

The comments came in a post on Saturday, March 7, 2026, on the social media platform X, in which Larijani suggested the US was concealing the captures.

“It has been reported to me that several American soldiers have been taken prisoner,” Larijani wrote.

“But the Americans claim that they have been killed in action. Despite their futile efforts, the truth is not something they can hide for too long.”

The US military, however, quickly refuted the claims with its own statement.

“The Iranian ⁠regime is ⁠doing everything it can to peddle lies and deceive. ‌This is yet another clear example,” said US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins in response to Larijani’s post.

A spokesperson from US Central Command (CENTCOM) echoed Hawkins’s denial in a statement to Al Jazeera Arabic.

“The Iranian regime’s claims of capturing American soldiers are yet another example of its lies and deceptions,” the spokesman said.

At least six members of the US armed forces have been killed since the war began on February 28, after the US and Israel launched a joint attack. The administration of US President Donald Trump dubbed the military campaign “Operation Epic Fury”.

The Tasnim news agency in Iran reported this week that an estimated 1,332 people have been killed in the war since last week. That death toll includes approximately 180 children who died in a strike on a school in the southeastern city of Minab.

An analysis from The New York Times has suggested the school was struck by the US. Trump, however, blamed Iran as he took questions from reporters while on board the presidential plane, Air Force One.

“Based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” he said on Saturday, March 7, 2026.

Trump spent the day travelling back and forth 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.

All six were killed on March 1, one day into the war, during an Iranian drone strike on a Kuwait port.

The US military has identified the dead soldiers as Declan Cody, Jeffrey O’Brien, Cody Khork, Noah Tietjens, Nicole Amor and Robert Marzan.

“It’s a very sad day. I’m glad we paid our respects. It’s tough. It’s a tough situation,” Trump said as he left the “dignified transfer” ceremony on Air Force One.

Still, he struck an upbeat note about the war itself, calling its progress “as good as it could be”.