The administration of US President Donald Trump is facing renewed scrutiny over its account of the military campaign against Iran, with leaked information indicating that more American service members have died during the war than publicly disclosed.
The revelation follows conflicting reports over the financial cost of the war and growing concerns about depleted US weapons and ammunition stockpiles. Five US officials familiar with internal Pentagon casualty data told The Washington Post that at least 22 service members have died, while a sixth official put the toll at 23. The Pentagon’s publicly available Defence Casualty Analysis System lists 18 deaths and more than 820 wounded since the conflict began.
In July, Trump attended a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to receive the bodies of four US soldiers killed in Iranian attacks on two American bases in Jordan and Erbil.
The ceremony represented one of the few publicly visible acknowledgements of American personnel killed during the war in the Middle East. Questions, however, have continued over the full casualty count disclosed to the public.
22 or 23?
According to the Pentagon’s public database, 18 US service members have died, and more than 820 have been wounded since the conflict began.
Five US officials with knowledge of the Pentagon’s internal casualty records told The Washington Post that at least 22 military personnel have died during the conflict, four more than appear in the public database. A sixth official said the number was 23.
That official said not all of the previously undisclosed deaths were directly attributable to the fighting, but included US personnel who were stationed in the Middle East while hostilities were under way.
The official also said three American contractors working in the Middle East had died since the war began.
The higher casualty figures are expected to intensify pressure on the Trump administration from voters opposed to the military campaign against Iran, as Republican and Democratic lawmakers voice concerns over the war’s impact on US forces, weapons stockpiles and financial resources.
As of Friday, Pentagon figures showed seven service members killed as a result of what it classified as hostile action during “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran, with another seven deaths classified as non-hostile.
Four additional deaths were listed separately under the category of “Overseas Operations”, which coincided with the collapse of the fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran.
Amid conflicting accounts, a Pentagon official told The Daily Beast in August that the department would issue its annual report within months on casualties resulting from US military operations during 2025.
Fears of ‘Another Iraq’
With the war in the Middle East continuing for nearly seven months without a clear agenda for ending it, questions are mounting over the scale of further casualties that could follow.
US media cited Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina as saying in March: “The Washington war machine is trying to turn Iran into another Iraq. Our troops are not to be used for another endless war.”
Criticism has not been limited to the official number of deaths or how casualties are categorised within the Pentagon’s Defence Casualty Analysis System. Trump’s own treatment of American war deaths has also drawn criticism.
Trump has repeatedly compared the number of Americans killed in the Iran campaign with the far higher death tolls suffered by the United States in its previous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including in comments posted on Truth Social. Bereaved military families have reacted angrily to those remarks.
According to The Daily Beast, families also accused Trump of attributing words to dead service members that they had never said after he claimed they had strongly expressed their determination to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Karie Fugett, the widow of Marine Corporal Jimmy Cleveland II, told HuffPost: “It’s crystal clear to me that this is a disgraceful political stunt ahead of a major election.”
She added: “The president knows his war with Iran is the most unpopular war in modern history, and he’s terrified of how that will show up at the ballot box. It’s foul.”
Public opinion data has further exposed opposition to the war.
The latest Fox News poll found that 60 per cent of voters believed Trump had made the wrong decision by taking military action against Iran.
The results were even more critical of the administration’s approach to ending the conflict, with 71 per cent of voters saying the Trump administration lacked a clear strategy to bring the war to an end.
