The Pentagon’s public tally of troops wounded during the Iran war was quietly increased by 37 this week without explanation from the Defense Department.
The increase includes 29 Navy sailors and eight Marines, according to a review of the Pentagon’s public database of personnel killed and wounded during U.S. conflicts and other military operations overseas. The web portal is called the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS.
As of Wednesday, the total number of troops wounded during the Iran war is 861, according to DCAS. More than half are categorized in the Pentagon database as having occurred in “Overseas Operations” since the start of a July ceasefire between Washington and Tehran that later collapsed. Before then, killed and wounded troops were tallied under “Operation Epic Fury,” the Trump administration’s name for the Iran war.
The DCAS database does not explain how these 37 troops were wounded or when. A Navy official said all the sailors returned to duty following the unspecified injuries.
President Donald Trump and other senior administration officials have, since the ceasefire, repeatedly argued that the conflict is not a war. Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Sept. 3 that “Right now, there is no active shooting.”
Defense officials have said previously that DCAS data entry can lag for days or longer for a variety of reasons, including a delay in reporting concussions and brain injuries because sometimes symptoms don’t emerge right away.
Spokespeople for the Pentagon did not return requests for comment.
The Navy and Marine Corps referred questions to U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military missions in the Middle East. A spokesman for Central Command declined to comment. Military officials have not publicly disclosed any recent attacks on U.S. forces or other incidents that would account for how these 37 troops were wounded.
The Trump administration’s casualty accounting practices have faced intense scrutiny since earlier this year, when the names of four U.S. troops who died as a result of the Iran war were briefly excluded from the Pentagon’s official tally.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that more American service members have died in the Middle East during the Iran conflict than the Pentagon has disclosed publicly. Officials said that as many as five military fatalities are not reflected in the DCAS database — a discrepancy that remains unresolved. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed the article was inaccurate and called the reporting “disgusting.”
At the time of that report, the database showed that 18 U.S. personnel had died due to hostile and nonhostile action since Feb. 28, when the Trump administration, in concert with Israel, initiated the Iran war. As The Post reported, not all of the undisclosed fatalities are directly tied to the Iran conflict but involve U.S. personnel who were in the region amid the hostilities.
The DCAS tally of fatalities was increased to 19 this week after the death of an Army officer who experienced a medical emergency Sept. 18 while flying to the Middle East.
Historically, nonhostile deaths documented in the DCAS database have encompassed those caused by accidents, sudden health crises or self-inflicted wounds, including suicides. In past conflicts, those types of deaths were documented to provide the American public with an unvarnished accounting of the costs incurred by military personnel and their families.
Polls show that the Iran war is deeply unpopular with the American public and a potential political liability for Trump and the Republican Party heading into November’s midterm elections.
On Thursday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters that Tehran had made an overture to Washington seeking to revive peace talks.
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