Pentagon list of service members killed in Iran war removes most recent four | Trump administration
The Pentagon’s official online list of those killed in the ongoing Iran war does not include four soldiers killed in renewed fighting over the weekend, although their names are on the list. A press release from the Pentagon It’s about the official transfer of their remains to the United States on Wednesday.
A review current list Data on the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System website, although last updated on Wednesday, shows that the number of US military personnel killed during Operation Epic Fury, the Pentagon’s name for the US-Israeli war against Iran that Donald Trump launched on February 28, remains at 14.
a separate List of Names of the Fallen The Pentagon’s same casualty site currently lists only 13 soldiers.
Accordingly A report from the New York TimesThe Pentagon website on Wednesday listed 18 American soldiers killed during the war against Iran, but that list was changed Thursday to exclude three soldiers killed last Friday, Saturday and Sunday as Iran retaliated to new U.S. strikes with an attack on a base used by U.S. forces in Jordan. The list also does not include a fourth soldier killed in the controlled explosion of an Iranian drone at Erbil air base in Iraq.
On Thursday, the defense department lowered that number, saying 14 American soldiers were killed in the war.
“One of the reasons behind the change was that the Trump administration decided to remove from the list four service members killed last weekend… because their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a ceasefire in the war in April,” three military officials told the Times.
A Pentagon spokesman disputed that claim and told the Times that the decrease in the total number of soldiers killed was due to “temporary data outages” and that it would be quickly corrected.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
News that recently killed soldiers had been removed from the Pentagon list came a day after Trump traveled to Dover air force base in Delaware to salute the remains of four soldiers killed last week and a day after he continued to demand that the number of people killed be much lower than in years-long conflicts such as the US wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump on Wednesday published a chart Comparing the 18 death toll in the Iran war with previous wars that misreported the number of people killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, he wrote on the social media platform: “These are the real facts. REPORT THEM!”
Speaking to reporters Thursday on his way to what the Pentagon called the “dignified transfer” of the remains of slain soldiers, Trump claimed the dead soldiers supported his claim that the war against Iran was necessary to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. US intelligence evaluated Iran was abandoned in 2003.
“We’re going to Dover to honor our heroes, and they are truly great heroes. They all said very strongly that we cannot allow Iran to have nuclear weapons,” Trump said.
At an event Thursday, Trump again argued that the death toll in his war against Iran was low compared to Vietnam, where he did not serve in his youth.
“You know, we were in Vietnam for 20 years, we lost thousands, hundreds of thousands of lives.” Trump saidinflation actual death toll Among US troops numbering 58,220.
“We were in Afghanistan for years. We were in all these wars you hear about for years,” Trump added. “Yes, we’ve been here four months and we – I had a very sad day yesterday. I went to Dover, four great American patriots were killed. That’s 18… and one is too many, but 18. Whereas in Vietnam we lost 200,000 people.”
Republican congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky suggested that the Pentagon’s Iran war death toll excludes four soldiers killed last week because the Trump administration claims the war technically ended in June, when Trump signed a temporary ceasefire with Iran over dinner at the Palace of Versailles.
“Let me explain this ridiculous game: The Pentagon is acting as if there are two Iran wars separated by a brief ceasefire.” Massie wrote on social media. “Fact: Going for more than 90 days without congressional authorization VIOLATES THE LAW and must be held accountable,” said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
