The US Military Is Hiding the True Extent of Its Iran War Casualties
One defence official says there is a ‘cover-up’ of deaths and injuries.
by Joshua Carroll
3 April 2026
The US military is refusing to disclose the true extent of the casualties it has suffered across the Middle East since the start of its illegal war on Iran.
An analysis by The Intercept put the number of soldiers killed or injured since February 28 at just under 750, but the Pentagon refused to acknowledge this figure to the outlet, while other military officials offered outdated casualty numbers.
One anonymous defence official accused the US military of engaging in a “casualty cover-up”.
US Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, offered “low-ball and outdated figures” to The Intercept and would not clarify the number of military deaths and injuries, even though it has done so under previous administrations.
A military spokesperson, Captain Tim Hawkins, said on Monday that “303 US service members have been wounded” since the start of the war, but this figure excluded at least 15 servicepeople who were wounded three days earlier in an attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Centcom did not respond to repeated requests from The Intercept for updated figures.
Public reports put the number of US soldiers killed since the start of the war at at least 15, but Centcom refused to provide a count of those who had died.
In response to Iranian attacks on US bases in Gulf states, many US military personnel have relocated to hide among civilians in hotels and other buildings. Both the US and Israel have accused Hamas of using Gazans as human shields by basing itself in civilian areas.
“US soldiers fled military bases… to hide in hotels and offices,” Iranian foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghch wrote on X. “They use… citizens as human shields.”
US bases have been badly damaged in Iranian strikes, with confirmed attacks in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. Centcom refuses to confirm how many bases have been hit.
Joshua Carroll is a writer and journalist.