Key facts
- The Pentagon's official list of service members killed in the Iran war now shows 14 deaths.
- Four soldiers recently killed have been removed from the list.
- Some officials suggest the removal is linked to deaths occurring after President Trump declared a cease-fire.
- A Pentagon spokesperson attributed the discrepancy to 'temporary data disruptions'.
The Pentagon's official online list of service members killed in the ongoing war on Iran has been updated to reflect 14 deaths, notably excluding four soldiers who died over the weekend. This comes despite their names being included in a Pentagon press release on Wednesday concerning the formal transfer of their remains back to the United States. A review of the Defense Casualty Analysis System website showed the number of US military personnel killed during Operation Epic Fury, the name given to the US-Israeli war on Iran launched by President Donald Trump on February 28, remained at 14. A separate "Names of Fallen" list on the same site currently includes only 13 service members.
A New York Times report indicated that the Pentagon website had initially listed 18 American service members as killed on Wednesday but was subsequently changed to exclude three individuals who died last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. These deaths occurred as Iran retaliated for new US strikes with an attack on a base used by US forces in Jordan. The list also excluded a fourth soldier who died during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone at Erbil air base in Iraq. By Thursday, the defense department reported 14 American troops had been killed in the war.
Three military officials told the Times that the removal of these four service members was a decision by the Trump administration, as their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in April. However, a Pentagon spokesperson disputed this, stating that the decreased total was due to "temporary data disruptions" that would be rectified. The reported removal of recently deceased service members from the Pentagon list occurred one day after Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to salute the remains of the four soldiers. Trump has continued to highlight the death toll of his Iran war, comparing it favorably to previous long-term conflicts and claiming the dead soldiers supported his assertion that the war is necessary to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.