At least 624 US military service members have been wounded since President Donald Trump ordered strikes against Iran in February, according to the Pentagon’s most recent update on 25 July.
Among those wounded, 417 are attributed to Operation Epic Fury, while 207 are attributed to “Overseas Operations”.
The US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in April and signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June, but attacks from both sides have occurred throughout.
Last week, the Pentagon revised its figures on those injured and killed in the war, taking the names of four who died in Operation Epic Fury and moving them to the death count for Overseas Operations.
On the Pentagon’s Defense Analysis Casualty System, the death count for Operation Epic Fury, the name given to the initial attack, was listed at 18 as late as Tuesday, and 482 wounded.
At some point, four of those names were removed, and on Thursday the death toll was reduced to 14.
The four deceased soldiers’ names now appear on Overseas Operations, which says it measures “casualties starting July 7th 2026”. They are the only four listed deaths.
The unexplained, silent changing of casualty statistics – for both the wounded and the dead – was criticised as undermining transparency.
“The administration seems to have a real hard time being honest about what is going on – not just about casualties, but about the whole war in general,” said Lt Gen Ben Hodges, who commanded US forces in Europe when Trump first came to power.
In a post on X, Republican congressman Thomas Massie, a frequent Trump critic, called splitting the conflict into categories was an “absurd ruse”.
The BBC has reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.
On X, Pentagon spokespman Sean Parnell described the shifting figures as “temporary data disruptions”.
“These site anomalies are currently being resolved in coordination with the Military Services,” the statement said.
In a post on Truth Social, on 21 July, Trump wrote that the “Iran Military Conflict” had claimed 18 lives.
The category “Overseas Operations” appeared for the first time on the Pentagon’s website on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
It included the names of the four Army soldiers who died recently and counted 207 for those wounded. It is unclear if all 207 were injured as a result of the Iran war.
The name changes appeared to reflect the four US soldiers who died in July, after the interim deal signed by Trump last month began to break down, and after the president had declared the ceasefire with Iran was “over”.
Three US soldiers died after Iranian missile strikes on a base in Jordan on 17 July and another in Iraq during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone.
Since mid-July, the US had attacked Iranian military infrastructure, met with Iranian forces firing on American bases in neighbouring countries, for 13 consecutive nights.
Then starting on Friday there has been a pause, with Sunday the third night of no attacks from both sides.
By BBC News
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