Anadolu Agency (English), on Iran, 2 August 2026

The headline editorialises, passive voice hides who attacked, and the dead are labelled, the other side is not.

out of 10, scored on 5 of 11 checks. Few checks applied, so read it with that in mind.

The double standard

Iranian deaths are attributed to a named source and hedged with "according to Iranian figures", while the retaliatory strikes by Tehran are stated as plain fact with no casualty figures or sourcing, applying a stricter standard of scepticism only to the side that suffered the larger reported death toll.

How it builds, in Joint offensive and retaliation paragraph

Deaths attributed to named source, figure hedged
Israel and the US launched a joint offensive on Iran in February, killing more than 3,000 people, including former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to Iranian figures.
Casualty figure sourced and qualified as Iranian figures
Retaliation stated as plain fact, no sourcing
Tehran retaliated with missile and drones strikes on Gulf nations hosting US assets.
Strike stated as unqualified fact with no attribution or casualty figure
Symmetrical framing erases prior death toll context
the US and Iran exchanging attacks
Both sides treated as equivalent actors with no reference to the 3,000 deaths already reported

The same decision, both sides

Attribution of casualty figures

Iranian deaths are sourced and hedged, signalling possible unreliability.

killing more than 3,000 people, including former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to Iranian figures.

The retaliatory strikes by Tehran are stated as bare fact with no sourcing, no figures, and no qualification.

Tehran retaliated with missile and drones strikes on Gulf nations hosting US assets.

Naming the actor responsible for deaths

The actors who caused Iranian deaths are named explicitly as Israel and the US.

Israel and the US launched a joint offensive on Iran in February, killing more than 3,000 people

The later exchange of attacks is described symmetrically, dissolving individual actor responsibility.

the US and Iran exchanging attacks

What a reader is left with. A reader is left believing that the 3,000-plus Iranian deaths are a contested Iranian claim, while Tehran's retaliatory missile and drone strikes are an unqualified, uncontested fact, making Iran appear both the less credible reporter of its own losses and the unambiguous aggressor in the exchange.

Israel ‘left in dark’ on joint Iran attack, knew Trump’s decision to call off strike from social media: Report

US President Donald Trump has left Israel in the dark on a planned attack on Iran, as he suddenly called off the joint strike, with Israeli officials knowing about the decision from social media, according to Israeli media on Sunday. “For hours, we were in real uncertainty,” a senior official told Channel 12. “President Trump left us in the fog. Senior officers were updated about what was happening from Trump’s social media,” he added. Trump said Saturday that he canceled a planned military strike against Iran after Tehran and “other Middle Eastern countries” requested time to finalize the framework of a peace deal, saying Israel has joined the commitment. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump claimed that the sides agreed to the “perimeters” of a potential deal that would include the "immediate, complete, and total" reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran's nuclear threat. “The feeling was, they left us behind,” the Israeli official said. Israel and the US launched a joint offensive on Iran in February, killing more than 3,000 people, including former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to Iranian figures. Tehran retaliated with missile and drones strikes on Gulf nations hosting US assets. The US and Iran signed a ceasefire in April and signed a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding in June aimed at ending their military conflict and reaching a lasting peace agreement. The deal, however, collapsed last month with the US and Iran exchanging attacks, before Trump abruptly halted the offensive amid reports of diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement between the two sides.

Read the original article on aa.com.tr