File image.. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. William Howard)
More United States service members have died in the Middle East during the war with Iran than the Pentagon has publicly acknowledged, according to a Washington Post report published September 18 that cites six U.S. officials familiar with the Defense Department’s internal casualty records.
Five of the officials told the Post that at least 22 military personnel have died since the conflict began, four more than the 18 fatalities listed in the Pentagon’s public Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS.
A sixth official put the number at 23, while cautioning that not all of those deaths were directly caused by the war and instead involved U.S. personnel serving in the region during ongoing hostilities.
The officials spoke anonymously to discuss casualty figures that have not been publicly released. The identities of the additional service members, as well as when, where and how they died, remain unclear. The Pentagon declined to address the discrepancy when questioned by the Post.
The public DCAS database listed 18 military fatalities as of September 18. Fourteen are recorded under Operation Epic Fury, the Pentagon’s name for the initial phase of the Iran war, while four others are listed under a separate category called Overseas Operations covering casualties from renewed fighting after a July ceasefire.
That split in the Pentagon’s accounting has previously drawn attention. In July, the Defense Department removed four soldiers killed during renewed U.S.-Iran fighting from the Operation Epic Fury tally and placed them in the new Overseas Operations category.
The Pentagon said the separate category reflected the end of Operation Epic Fury, while the Associated Press reported that the change removed those deaths from the conflict’s main casualty count.
The Post also identified two other U.S. military deaths since February that the Pentagon has said occurred during missions unrelated to the Iran war, although they took place at bases that had come under Iranian attack. Army Sgt. Devin Seibel died in a training accident in Iraq on May 31 while assigned to Operation Inherent Resolve, while Maj. Sorffly Davius died in Kuwait on March 6 after a medical emergency. The report said it was unclear whether Davius’ death was connected to an Iranian attack.
In addition to military personnel, one official told the Post that three U.S. contractors based in the region have died since combat operations began.
The Pentagon’s public database also records more than 820 service members wounded since the conflict started, with many suffering traumatic brain injuries during Iranian attacks on U.S. bases across the Middle East.
The report comes after earlier scrutiny of the Pentagon’s casualty reporting. In July, the department attributed fluctuations in its public figures to what it described as temporary data disruptions before establishing the separate Overseas Operations category.
The Post also reported that the U.S. Central Command has estimated the conflict has cost about $43.6 billion through early September, including roughly $28 billion in munitions, according to a document reviewed by the newspaper. The estimate does not include damage to U.S. bases.
The report comes after Iranian officials have repeatedly accused Washington of understating U.S. causalities during the war.
Earlier in the week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would eventually disclose what he called the actual number of U.S. military casualties, claiming Iranian strikes had damaged hundreds of U.S. military sites and dozens of aircraft.
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