Pentagon Withheld Dozens of U.S. Military Injuries in Iran War
On social media, the Pentagon said later on Monday that the number of U.S. military casualties from Iranian attacks since July 7 had risen to nearly 100.
Eric Schmitt covers the U.S. military.
In the week leading up to the Iranian attack on Friday that killed two U.S. soldiers and left one service member missing in Jordan, Iran carried out three other strikes against U.S. forces in the country.
Those attacks injured dozens of U.S. service members and damaged several helicopters, according to several U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
The Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted. Yet later on Monday on social media, its chief spokesman said that the number of U.S. military casualties from Iranian attacks since July 7 had risen to nearly 100.
The episode from this weekend is the latest example during the Iran conflict of the tension between what the Pentagon says is the need for operational security and the government’s obligation to inform the public about the conduct of the war.
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In statements after airstrikes against Iranian military sites last week, U.S. Central Command said it was retaliating for Iran’s attacks against commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, never mentioning Iran’s strikes on bases in the region, including in Jordan.
Central Command is not required to release information about injured service members, especially when they quickly return to duty, a U.S. military official said.
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Moreover, another U.S. military official added, why would the Pentagon divulge information that could help Iran zero in on its deadly ballistic missiles and drone attacks in Jordan and other bases in the Middle East where thousands of American troops are stationed?
Central Command has also stopped announcing how many sites in Iran it hits each day for the same reason, U.S. officials say.
Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said that the military had not withheld or misrepresented U.S. casualties in the war. “Claims of concealment are fabrications meant to further distress the American people in the wake of three service members killed in action,” he said in a statement on Monday.
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He pointed to the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System, which he said was “regularly updated” with the latest information regarding dead and wounded U.S. troops. The publicly available site offers aggregate figures, but does not include information on specific mass-casualty attacks of the sort that have occurred in Jordan over the last week.
“Cherry-picking raw numbers without context paints a deliberately misleading and incomplete picture,” Mr. Parnell added.
He later posted on social media that the “vast majority” of the nearly 100 casualties since July 7 involved “mild concussions,” and 96 percent of those service members have returned to duty.
In the days since the collapse of a fragile truce, the Pentagon has provided little information about the American military strategy after nearly five months of war. The last major Pentagon briefing on the war was in early May.
In the past several months, the Trump administration has failed to disclose how the Iran war has drained U.S. supplies of critical, costly weapons, and how Iran retained and rebuilt substantial missile capabilities.
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The subject of American casualties in the war is similarly sensitive. The deaths of two Army soldiers in Jordan on Friday and another service member in northern Iraq bring to 17 the total number of American military personnel killed since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
The Pentagon’s casualty reporting protocols call for publicly identifying deceased service members only after 24 hours have passed since next of kin were notified. The names of troops wounded in action are not typically released.
In a statement on Saturday, Central Command said four American service members wounded in Friday’s attack were taken to Jordanian hospitals and had been discharged. More American troops received minor injuries and had returned to duty, the statement said, but it did not specify how many.
And the statement did not mention service members injured in the three previous attacks in Jordan last week.
In a brief phone call with NewsNation, President Trump said the troops died “in service of our country” and reiterated the war’s primary goal of “never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media on Saturday that the loss of the two U.S. soldiers would stiffen American resolve.
According to the Pentagon’s casualty reporting site, 427 U.S. service members have been injured in the Iran conflict. The site counts 14 troops killed in hostile and nonhostile incidents. The online death figures have not been updated to include the deaths the Pentagon announced over the weekend.
Mr. Parnell said that the figures for wounded troops include “everything from minor sprained ankles during routine training to incidents entirely unrelated to combat operations.”
In previous administrations, the Pentagon has usually delayed providing any details on injured service members until family notifications were completed. During the Biden administration, the Pentagon typically reported the number of service members injured in attacks by Iran-backed militias on U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq.
More than 1,700 Iranian civilians have died in the war, according to estimates.
Greg Jaffe, John Ismay and Helene Cooper contributed reporting.
is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades. Contact him securely on Signal: @ericschmitt.36.
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