On July 26 local time, the Department of Defense website 'Defense Casualty Analysis System' quietly introduced a new statistical category. This category broke down the American military casualties during the war in Iran by different time periods, resulting in a seemingly reduced number of American casualties.
The Anadolu News Agency in Turkey noted that the United States Department of Defense has added a new category for statistics called "Overseas Operations". This entry records the casualties of U.S. troops since July 7th. Current data shows that there have been 4 U.S. military deaths and 207 injuries. Among those who died are 3 U.S. personnel in Jordan, as well as 1 U.S. military personnel in northern Iraq.
If this data is combined with the information on the "Epic Fury Operation" page, since February 28th when the United States and Israel initiated the war against Iraq, a total of 18 Americans have died and 624 have been injured.
The Pentagon's adjustment of its casualty statistics comes as there is growing skepticism about the extent of information it discloses. The New York Times reported on the 23rd that earlier this month, Iran launched an attack, resulting in injuries to several American troops and damage to military aircraft. However, the Pentagon did not disclose this information publicly. The number of American deaths in the war with Iran shown on its official website has been reduced from 18 to 14.
CNN also stated that the figures in the casualties database are constantly changing, which further undermines public trust in the transparency of military casualties reports.
Regarding the related disputes, 12 Democratic senators from the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee sent a formal letter to Secretary of Defense Hagel on the 23rd, requesting an explanation for the changes in casualty figures.
U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson Xióng Èn Pān'nei previously responded to reports concerning the system error in the "Defense Casualty Analysis System."
However, as of now, the US Department of Defense has not clearly explained why the recent casualties of American troops have been moved to a new category in the statistics.
