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Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: ISIR260228h )
Deaths and injuries were reported after alleged U.S. and/or Israeli strikes on Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province on 28 February 2026. Eight militants were named in the attack, though sources also referenced between one and six ‘fatalities’ and 35 injuries, without specifying their combatant status. Airwars has accounted for a casualty range of 0 to 6 civilian deaths, as it is unclear if references to fatalities related to the militants mentioned by other sources.
While Airwars was unable to determine the identities of civilians killed in the strikes, Airwars was able to identify the names of eight members of the military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who were killed based on open sources. They are as follows: Brigadier General Second Class, Sardar Esmail Mehrara; Colonel Hamid Abedini; Ali Yeganeh, army soldier, Air Defense, Army Ground Forces; Major Mohammad-Reza Zarnegar, Air Defense, Army Ground Forces; Second Lieutenant Bahram Samadian, Air Defense, Army Ground Forces; Second Warrant Officer Mohammad Ebrahimi, Air Defense, Army Ground Forces; Javad Bashiri Khosrowshahi, IRGC Air Defense; and IRGC Colonel Ali-Akbar Sokhanvar.
Colonel Hamid Abedini was reportedly killed in Marand, and the other seven military members in Tabriz. Both of these locals are within Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province. The sources citing up to six people killed and 45 injured also referred to events at the province-level, with Airwars being unable to break the events into more discreet strikes. As such, all have been recorded in this incident. This will be updated should additional information become available.
On February 28, sources Nournews_ir, isna94, asriran_official all reported on six killed and 45 people injured, repeating the line: “The martyrdom of six people and the injury of 45 people in the [East Azerbaijan] province following US and Israeli attacks has been confirmed.” Airwars later identified the names seven members of the military killed in Tabriz, and an eight reportedly killed in Marand.
Subsequent sources reiterated these revised figures, with only two accounts contributing new information: one citing one fatality and 35 injuries (ILNA News Agency speaking with Majid Farshi), and another citing six fatalities and 45 injuries. As such, Airwars has given a casualty range of zero to six killed and 35 to 45 injured to account for both possibilities. This range also accounts for the possibility that those eight named military members are included in the six fatalities reported by Nournews_ir, isna94, asriran_official.
Where sources referred to a belligerent, both the US and Israeli military were named.
Though not definitive enough to determine attribution for this incident, the Israel military shared a video to its Persian-language Telegram channel indicating that the Israeli Air Force had reportedly struck targets in the province that day. Included in the video was an illustration of an underground surface-to-surface missile site described as being in the Tabriz area.
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the province/governorate of East Azerbaijan Province (آذربایجان شرقی), for which the generic coordinates are: 38.001411, 46.643402. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.