U.S. Official: Iran Attacks Injured "Far More" Troops Than Pentagon Admits

U.S. casualties of the Iran War spiked even as U.S. Central Command withheld information about Americans killed and injured from the public. It's part of a long-running pattern of the Trump administration manipulating such data. The first official told The Intercept that recent attacks had wounded "far more" personnel than are reflected in the Pentagon's current casualty count. They did not provide numbers but said "dozens" had received medical attention. Neither CENTCOM nor the Pentagon replied to numerous requests by The Intercept for information on the casualties, nor would either address the effort to cover up U.S. losses. On Monday, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon withheld information on "dozens of U.S. military injuries in Iran War." Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell called the article "baseless and malicious." The office of self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth attempted to keep information about the new casualties under wraps. "We have nothing to provide beyond what is listed on the website," a representative of Hegseth's office told The Intercept late Friday night, without specifying which website, when questioned about U.S. casualties. Hours later, U.S. Central Command acknowledged "two U.S. service members in Jordan were killed in action" on Friday amid "Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks." The command also disclosed that four other troops "were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals," an unspecified number of other troops were evaluated for injuries, and "one service member is currently missing in action." CENTCOM later stripped "in action" from the announcement of the missing soldier, but would not explain the reason to The Intercept. The surge in deaths and injuries raise the official U.S. casualty count to at least 446. U.S. casualties have increased by more than 15 percent since the first ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was struck on April 8. Counting Davius and the "missing" soldier in Jordan, the U.S. has suffered 19 deaths during the Iran War. Parnell said on Monday that "casualty information is publicly available and regularly updated online on the Defense Casualty Analysis System for everyone, including the media, to review." DCAS was, uncharacteristically, not updated as of Monday afternoon and instead offered outdated figures posted Friday morning. On April 21, the number of wounded-in-action troops declined by 15 without public comment from the War Department. Despite repeated questions over three months, the Pentagon has not explained the disparity in its casualty count.