Pentagon removes four troops from Iran war death toll

The Pentagon under Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has been accused of covering up US deaths in its war on Iran [Getty] The four American troops killed in the US-Israeli war on Iran in recent weeks are no longer listed as part of the war death toll in the Pentagon's official casualty count, having instead been moved into a new category. The change has raised questions about how casualties are being counted as the Trump administration continues military operations against Iran while offering few details about how it intends to end the conflict. The Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), which Pentagon officials have repeatedly described as the authoritative source for casualty figures, removed the four soldiers and dozens of wounded personnel from its Iran war tally last week. On Sunday, a new category labelled "Overseas Operations" appeared on the system's website, listing the four Army deaths by name alongside 207 wounded personnel. It was unclear whether all of those wounded were injured in the Iran conflict. Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez said on Thursday that the changes were not an attempt to conceal the human cost of the war but were the result of "anomalies" and "temporary data disruptions" that would be resolved "imminently". As recently as Tuesday, the website listed 18 dead and 482 wounded in the Iran conflict. By Wednesday, those figures had fallen to 14 dead and 420 wounded, although a U.S. official told The Associated Press that the actual number of wounded personnel had risen to well over 500. The Pentagon's chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, also described the change as a "temporary data disruption". The U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran on 28 February, with 14 U.S. troops killed during the initial phase of the conflict. After a ceasefire and interim agreement collapsed, fighting resumed on 7 July when Israel repeatedly broke the ceasefire by bombing and invading Lebanon. The Pentagon's new "Overseas Operations" category begins counting casualties from 7 July, the date the renewed fighting began. Since then, the U.S. and Iran have exchanged regular attacks, with Washington carrying out nightly strikes for nearly two weeks before pausing operations late last week as diplomatic efforts resumed. Tehran has also suspended its retaliatory attacks during the pause. Throughout the renewed fighting, the Pentagon has released limited information about military operations and casualties. Officials, including Valdez and Parnell, have maintained that the DCAS website demonstrates the department's commitment to transparency over the number of American service members killed and wounded.