On Wednesday, the Pentagon website had reported that 18 American service members had died in the Iran war.
By Thursday, that number had been lowered to 14.
Three military officials told the New York Times that “one reason behind the change was that the Trump administration decided to remove four service members killed this past weekend from the list … because their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April.”
The acting press secretary for the Pentagon denied the claim, stating the change was attributed to “temporary data disruptions” that would soon be fixed.
Since the cease-fire collapsed, the Pentagon has provided little information about the American military strategy and has been slow to release information about troops’ injuries. The last major Pentagon briefing on the war was in early May.
The Department of War says that disclosing Iranian strikes on US bases where troops are housed would compromise operational security.
Pentagon officials say they are bound by law to report troop deaths, but not injuries. After the latest attack that killed three soldiers in Jordan, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, acknowledged that the number of US military casualties since July 7 had risen to nearly 100.