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The Trump administration quietly revised the U.S. troop death count in the Iran war from 18 to 14 this week, seemingly removing the deaths of the four troops killed this past weekend in Iranian strikes even as the administration faces accusations of cover-ups with regard to American casualties of the war.
The New York Times reported that, on Wednesday, the Pentagon website that logs troop casualties said that 18 troops had been killed in total as a result of the war, dubbed Operation Epic Fury by the administration.
However, on Thursday, four troops’ deaths were removed, and the total deaths listed on the website decreased to 14. The removed deaths specifically appeared to be those of the three soldiers killed in Jordan and the one killed in Iraq this past weekend.
The Department of Defense’s acting press secretary, Joel Valdez, said the change was due to “temporary data disruptions” and would be swiftly fixed. As of Friday morning eastern time, the casualty counts listed on the website remained at 14.
But this wasn’t the explanation given to the Times by three other military officials, who instead said that one reason for the change was that, as the Times wrote, “their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April.”
This doesn’t fully explain, though, why the death of a Navy pilot who died in a helicopter crash earlier this month is still included in the count, with the website still listing one death in July, rather than five.
It is also a somewhat confusing explanation considering that it was Trump himself who declared the ceasefire over this month, and because the Pentagon has not given a new name to the current escalation, even though the administration submitted a new notification of hostilities to Congress this month.
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The administration has already faced scrutiny over its handling of casualties amid the war. This week, Trump faced criticism when he downplayed the 18 soldiers’ deaths, while also claiming, without proof, that the troops who died this weekend supported the war.
In a post on Truth Social published shortly before the four most recently slain soldiers’ dignified transfer ceremony on Wednesday, Trump touted the death count of the current war.
The aim was to suggest that it is low in comparison to other wars, and that the current conflict has “only” seen 18 American soldiers dead. “These are the real facts. REPORT THEM!” he said. Trump also bragged that the casualty count was low in remarks at an event on Thursday.
This week, the Pentagon admitted that nearly 100 troops were injured in the previous two weeks, after reports suggested that the military has been vastly underreporting casualties.
Meanwhile, the war is the most unpopular conflict in the history of polling in the U.S., and the administration has been obfuscating the true costs of the war by tens of billions of dollars, reports and experts say.
“They’re fudging numbers because they got us into this war and don’t know how to get us out,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) on Thursday, in comments on the revision of the death count. “More Americans will die because these guys care more about their ego than our troops’ safety.”
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