On Feb. 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched a large-scale offensive on Iran, targeting military installations and killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The same day, missiles destroyed a girls' primary school in Minab, a city in southern Iran, killing more than 100 people, most of whom were children, per Iranian government reports. Soon after the attack, an aerial photograph (archived) spread online purportedly showing numerous grave sites of the people killed in the strikes.
Many people online — as well as Grok, X's AI assistant — disputed the photo, saying it was miscaptioned and instead showed an aerial shot of graveyards in Jakarta, Indonesia, or Sao Paolo, Brazil, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Snopes readers asked us to confirm whether the image was actually from Brazil or Indonesia during the pandemic.
Contrary to the claims disputing the location of the photograph, we have confirmed that it is indeed authentic and shows the graves of people killed by airstrikes in Minab. Using photos and footage from Iranian government and media sources, as well as satellite imagery on Google Maps and Google Earth, Snopes was able to confirm where the graves were dug and authenticate the image in question.
As such, we rate the claim that the photo shows the airstrike victims' graves as true.
The image was originally released by the Iranian government and its press affiliate. On March 2, 2026, Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi shared the aerial shot of the grave sites with the caption: "These are graves being dug for more than 160 innocent young girls who were killed in the US-Israeli bombing of a primary school. Their bodies were torn to shreds."
A zoomed-out version of the image Araghchi shared is available on Getty Images with the caption:
In this aerial handout picture released by the Iranian Press Center, mourners dig graves during the funeral for children killed in a reported strike on a primary school in Iran's Hormozgan province in Minab on March 3, 2026. Iranian media have reported hundreds of Iranian casualties, including at a girl's school, although AFP reporters have not been able to verify tolls independently.
(AFP photo/Iranian Press Center/Getty Images)
We determined the authenticity of the photograph by comparing it to footage and past satellite images from the same location on Google Maps.
Researcher Tal Hagin, an open source intelligence analyst, determined the coordinates of the graveyard on Google Maps, almost 5 miles from the girls' school (the location we had confirmed in previous coverage). The area is labeled "Minab Hermud cemetery" on Google Maps. We found that this was indeed the location of the grave sites by comparing it to drone footage of fresh graves being dug on March 3 that were released by WANA, an Iranian news agency, and published by Reuters.
The drone footage reveals a building with a long blue roof on the left of the newly dug graves. The footage shows the same three yellow vehicles digging graves on the bottom of the image as those in the photograph, with a fourth vehicle joining them.
Satellite images from April 2025 on Google Earth and images from Google Maps earlier in 2026 show the same blue roof on the left of an empty field. At the time those satellite images were taken, there were no graves in that field. The empty space in the field below is the same shape as the field being used to dig the new graves after the Feb. 28 attack.
(Google Maps in 2026 before the strike)
Compare the area circled in red above to this screenshot of drone footage of the grave sites published by Reuters:
(Reuters/WANA)
The New York Times verified the same location of the graves, stating around 100 graves were being dug there on March 2, 2026.
The photograph shared by Iranian government officials is a cropped version of the original image, which shows the pathway around the grave sites and is the same shape as the once-empty patch of land on Google Maps. Iran's Press TV shared other photographs of the mass graves from different angles. The blue roof is visible on the bottom left of the third image with the same dried tree foliage on the top left.
Aerial shots of grave sites are similar around the world, with a few notable differences in soil color and vegetation. Grok appeared to confuse the photograph of graves in Iran with such images from 2021 in Jakarta, showing graves of people who were buried during the COVID-19 pandemic. The machinery used to dig graves in Jakarta also was yellow. Grok also confused the image from Iran with images from Sao Paolo (including at the Vila Formosa cemetery) in 2021, showing mass burials of people who died in the pandemic.
Snopes has previously covered the unproven claims that Iran was behind the attack on the girls' school, as well as other stories related to the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.