Just as an example of the type of outlandish reporting that characterize the mainstream media in the Muslim world, particularly when covering Israel, a number of leading Iranian news agencies this week “revealed” that US Secretary of State John Kerry had been wounded in a firefight with ISIS gunmen, and not by falling off his bike.

According to the Iran’s Nasim news agency, which cited an American website, which cited unnamed Russian officials, Kerry was meeting with a senior ISIS official who had secretly planned to assassinate the American.

As the ambush unfolded, Kerry was wounded and at least one other person was killed in the ensuing gun battle.

To Western readers, that might seem ludicrous and the stuff of the most exaggerated of conspiracy theories, but it was quickly gobbled up as legitimate news by dozens of Iranian news outlets.

Of course, at the same time, the US State Department claimed in an interview with French radio that it and coalition partners had managed to slay a whopping 10,000 ISIS fighters over the past nine months, and all without causing civilian casualties.