More than 600 U.S. troops wounded in Iran war, Pentagon data show
by Darryl Coote · UPIJuly 27 (UPI) -- More than 600 U.S. service members have been wounded since the war with Iran began in February, Pentagon statistics indicate, following a quiet weekend update to a casualty database that had days earlier sharply revised the toll downward.
The update follows reports last week that the Pentagon's Defense Casualty Analysis System revised the death toll of U.S. service members killed in fighting with Iran downward from 18 to 14 and the number wounded from 482 to 420, along with other discrepancies between the database and publicly reported information, prompting Democrats to call on the Pentagon for a full accounting.
Over the weekend, the Defense Casualty Analysis System was updated, showing that the Pentagon is distinguishing those U.S. service members killed and injured during Operation Epic Fury, the name of the initial U.S. military operation in the Trump administration's war with Iran, from those killed and injured since the July 7 collapse of a fragile cease-fire that had been announced in April.
The collapse of the cease-fire was followed by nearly two weeks of nightly fighting, during which four U.S. soldiers were killed. A pause in fighting has held since late last week.
The Pentagon's website for military casualties states that four U.S. service members were killed and 207 were wounded in action under the category "Overseas Operations," which begins July 7, though it does not explicitly state that those casualties resulted from fighting with Iran.
It also states, in a separate category, that 14 U.S. service members were killed and 417 were wounded during Operation Epic Fury, which began Feb. 28.
The two categories together list 624 U.S. service members wounded since the war began.
The reason for the distinction between the two sets of casualty figures was not immediately clear.
Last week, the Pentagon faced accusations of concealing the actual number of service members injured after a New York Times report said dozens of wounded troops had not been included in the official tally.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said nearly 100 U.S. service members had suffered some degree of injury since July 7, and that 96% of them had returned to duty.
"Injuries in the military encompass everything from minor sprained ankles during training to incidents entirely unrelated to combat operations," Parnell said online in response to the reporting.
"Cherry-picking raw numbers without context paints a deliberately misleading and incomplete picture."
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., responded to the the new categorization by accusing the Pentagon of "pretending there have been two wars separated by a brief cease-fire."
On Thursday, Senate Armed Services Committee Democrats sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a letter demanding an explanation.
"The American people, Congress, service members and their families are entitled to a full and accurate accounting of the human costs of war," the dozen Democratic senators said.
"The information currently available to the public suggests that the department has not consistently provided timely and comprehensive public casualty reporting throughout the conflict."