More US Soldiers Have Died in Iran War Than Pentagon Previously Admitted

The Pentagon has quietly revealed that more US troops have been killed and wounded in the Iran war than it previously admitted. 

Twenty-one service members have been killed during the conflict and 865 wounded, according to data released without an announcement last Friday on an official US military website. 

A previous data release in August showed 18 killed and 757 wounded, while another last month listed 18 deaths and 820 wounded. 

As fighting has lulled for many weeks, it seems unlikely that the casualties are the result of fresh combat. The Intercept, which has been investigating undercounted casualties in the war for months, reported that one of the newly acknowledged deaths was on 6 March. 

An anonymous defence official told the outlet earlier this year that the US military was engaging in a “casualty cover-up”.

The latest change to the tally was made after US politicians highlighted “a discrepancy in the Pentagon’s reporting of casualty numbers”.

US war secretary Pete Hegseth has furiously denounced journalists who previously reported that casualties from the war are higher than the military admits. In response to a Washington Post story last month, he posted: “This is DISGUSTING and FAKE. A complete LIE.” 

Now, American politicians are demanding greater transparency over how many people have been killed or injured. 

Two Democratic house members, Adam Smith and Chrissy Houlahan, said they uncovered a discrepancy in the casualty numbers. “There is no excuse for a mistake of this magnitude,” they said in a joint statement on Friday.

The US has given out little information about civilian casualties in the conflict. In September a US airstrike in the city of Kuhestak hit a wedding party, killing two people and injuring 70, the New York Times reported.

In February, a US airstrike on a school and sports facility killed 120 children, an action described by UN investigators as a war crime. A US inquiry found the strike was the result of outdated intelligence which said the school was part of an Iranian military base. President Donald Trump attempted to blame the Iranian government for the incident.