The Pentagon’s public-facing casualty database has not been up to date in additional than a day after its variety of wounded and killed within the Iran battle abruptly shifted and continues to undercount the variety of the battle’s casualties, with Protection Division officers attributing the discrepancies to a technical snafu.
The discrepancy raises questions on whether or not the Pentagon’s underlying programs for monitoring casualties throughout navy operations could have been impacted by the Trump administration’s earlier statements that Operation Epic Fury, which was used because the namesake for the Iran battle, had ended in Might.
The U.S. airstrikes focusing on Iran since that date are being “known as ‘abroad operations,” a U.S. official instructed ABC Information, a imprecise description that might be an unconventional label for a battle, and subsequently makes it unclear how the battle useless and wounded could be counted.
The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, is seen from the Washington Monument commentary deck on the Nationwide Mall in Washington, DC on July 23, 2026.
Kent Nishimura/AFP through Getty Pictures
The scenario has sparked backlash from lawmakers, who say the administration is obfuscating the casualty rely and is attempting to skirt the 60-day restrict on navy motion with out congressional authorization by rebranding the battle.
The ledger of People killed and wounded in any battle has lengthy been considered because the clearest measure of a battle’s true price, and a basic take a look at of presidency transparency.
“Correct casualty reporting is the one hyperlink most People should the true price of battle, particularly as a result of it is borne virtually fully by the lower than 1% who serve and their households,” Alex Wagner, who served because the assistant secretary of the Air Drive for manpower and reserve affairs through the Biden administration, instructed ABC Information.
The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that began a 60-day negotiating interval in June, however earlier this month, Trump declared that the ceasefire was over, precipitating exchanges of fireside and extra just lately practically two weeks of consecutive nightly strikes.
The general public casualty database has beforehand posted shifting casualty figures because the battle started, however the discrepancies reached a crescendo Thursday when the reported loss of life toll fell from 18 to 14, successfully eradicating the 4 U.S. service members killed in Jordan and Iraq since every day combating renewed.
The variety of wounded troops listed within the database dropped from 482 on Wednesday to 420 on Thursday.
As of Friday night, these figures stay uncorrected.
The revised figures additionally seem to battle with the Pentagon’s personal current public statements. On Monday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell mentioned practically 100 extra U.S. troops had been wounded since July 7, when every day combating resumed after the collapse of a fragile ceasefire. At no level did the database replicate that enhance.
The Protection Casualty Evaluation System, or DCAS, is the Pentagon’s main public repository for monitoring U.S. navy casualties from present and previous conflicts. The Protection Division maintains the database utilizing casualty information submitted by the navy providers, and it serves because the federal authorities’s authoritative public document of battle useless.
Performing Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez mentioned the web site was experiencing technical points.
“The Division of Protection is conscious of momentary information disruptions on the Protection Casualty Evaluation System (DCAS) web site,” Valdez mentioned in a press release. “These web site anomalies are presently being resolved in coordination with the navy providers.”
The Pentagon didn’t reply to a request for touch upon detailed questions on how such a knowledge problem was potential and why the numbers had not been corrected.
It stays unclear whether or not Pentagon officers contemplate the resumption of every day combating to mark the beginning of a brand new navy marketing campaign.
There are additionally separate ongoing operations, corresponding to Operation Inherent Resolve, the navy marketing campaign in opposition to ISIS in Iraq and Syria, which included a U.S. presence within the area earlier than the Iran battle started.
Troops already deployed underneath that mission could technically fall underneath a separate operation on paper, together with a few of the troopers killed in current days. However parsing out particular person phases of a battle from the broader marketing campaign on this manner could be unprecedented.
Main U.S. navy conflicts have traditionally developed via distinct phases, with the scope and depth of operations altering over time, however these shifts haven’t resulted in separate casualty classes being handled as separate wars.
In a letter to Congress on Might 1, President Donald Trump wrote that Operation Epic Fury, which the administration has used as Iran Struggle’s namesake, had been “terminated.” On Might 5, Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructed reporters at a White Home briefing that Operation Epic Fury “was over”.
However the resumption of just about every day airstrikes that started on July 6 because the ceasefire with Iran fell aside has led to questions as as to if casualties during the last two weeks are being tracked individually. Such a break up could be unprecedented.
On Thursday, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., mentioned in a social media publish on X “The Pentagon is pretending there have been two Iran wars separated by a short cease-fire.” Massie described that risk as an “absurd ruse” supposed to keep away from the 60-day deadline imposed by the Struggle Powers Decision, which requires congressional authorization of U.S. navy conflicts.
Senate Armed Providers Committee Democrats on Thursday pressed Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth to clarify the Pentagon’s casualty reporting, demanding a “full and correct accounting” of each U.S. service member killed and wounded because the Iran battle started.
“The American individuals, Congress, service members, and their households are entitled to a full and correct accounting of the human prices of battle,” the letter led by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and signed by the 11 different Democrats on the panel, learn. “The data presently accessible to the general public means that the division has not constantly supplied well timed and complete public casualty reporting all through the battle.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul mentioned she was “outraged” to see the identify of Sgt. Angel Rampersad, one of many 4 troopers who was killed in current days, and a New York native, “eliminated” from the database.
“The Trump administration doesn’t get to revise the human price of this battle as a result of it has grow to be politically inconvenient,” she mentioned in a press release. “Sgt. Rampersad gave her life in service to this nation. Altering a web site doesn’t rewrite the reality of her sacrifice.”
The three different service members who had been killed in recent attacks had been Pfc. Isabella Gonzales, 1st Lt. Tyler Feehan and Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton.
The accounting points come after Trump earlier this week appeared to downplay the human price of the Iran battle, posting on social media a comparability of U.S. fatalities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam and Korea — wars that spanned years and claimed hundreds of American lives — alongside the Iran marketing campaign, a five-month battle fought via missile assaults and drones somewhat than conventional floor fight.
Trump’s publish mentioned that 18 American troops had died within the Iran battle.
