Ali Larijani, the head of Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council, has claimed on X that 500 US troops have been killed in the ongoing conflict within just a few days.

Addressing US President Donald Trump, Tehran’s security chief says he was “swayed by [Israeli PM] Netanyahu’s clownish antics [and] has dragged the American people into an unjust war with Iran”.

“Now he must calculate: with over 500 American soldiers killed in just the past few days, does America still come first — or Israel?”

Larijani has also warned that assassinating Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “will exact a heavy price”.