The Washington Post, citing US officials, reported that at least 22 US service personnel could have been killed in a war between the US and Israel against Iran. The Pentagon’s public database listed 18 fatalities as at 18 September. Defence Minister Pete Hagseth dismissed the report, and the ministry did not respond to the WP regarding the reasons for the discrepancy.
Briefly about the main points
- Five WP sources reported that at least 22 American soldiers had been killed.
- Another source speaking to the publication reported 23 deaths.
- The Pentagon’s official public database listed 18 fatalities.
- Hegset described the WP article as «a complete lie».
- The Pentagon also reports that more than 820 servicemen have been wounded.
What is the basis for the Washington Post’s assessment?
On 18 September, the publication reported that it had received information from six US officials familiar with the US Department of Defence’s internal casualty figures. Five of them reported at least 22 fatalities since the start of the war, whilst the sixth put the figure at 23.
The official, who spoke of 23 deaths, cautioned that not all the cases covered by this estimate are necessarily directly linked to combat operations. This refers to US service personnel who were stationed in the Middle East whilst a war was ongoing.
How the Pentagon classifies military deaths
In the Defence Casualty Analysis System, 14 deaths were attributed to Operation Epic Fury — this is how the administration Donald Trump refers to an operation against Iran. Four further cases in the database were classified under the category ‘Overseas Operations’.
The Washington Post highlighted two deaths of American servicemen in the Middle East that had not been included in the official war casualty figures. A sergeant Devin Seibel was killed on 31 May in Iraq during a training accident. Major Sorffli Davius He died on 6 March in Kuwait following a medical emergency; it is not known whether this was related to the hostilities.
Hegset dismissed reports of a higher death toll
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth In a post on the social media platform X, he described the *Washington Post* article as «a complete lie». Reuters confirmed that he had denied reports of a higher number of American military fatalities.
According to the WP, Pentagon He declined to answer the publication’s questions regarding the discrepancies between internal data and the publicly available database. Consequently, the figure published by the Ministry of Defence remains the officially confirmed figure.
Casualties and the cost of the war
The Pentagon’s public database has recorded more than 820 wounded US service personnel since the start of the war. Some of them suffered head injuries as a result of Iranian attacks on US facilities in the Middle East.
According to a document reviewed by the WP, US Central Command estimated the cost of the war at approximately $43.6 billion as of early September. Around $28 billion of this amount was accounted for by ammunition used. The war has also caused significant material damage to US military infrastructure.
Previous changes to the accounting treatment of losses
The Washington Post previously reported that the names of four American servicemen who died as a result of the war with Iran had temporarily disappeared from the official database. According to the newspaper, over the summer the US administration also reclassified some of the deaths from the ‘Operation Epic Fury’ category to ‘Overseas Operations’.
The Pentagon did not agree with the publication’s conclusions regarding possible discrepancies in the figures. The department did not provide any explanation for the discrepancy between the internal data reported by the WP’s sources and the official figures.
