The Pentagon did not disclose dozens of injuries to US service personnel resulting from a barrage of Iranian ballistic missile strikes on US bases in Jordan last week, the New York Times (NYT) reported on 20 July.
CBS News reported on Friday that two US soldiers and one service member were missing following Iranian strikes on the Muwaffaq Salti Base in Jordan.
Iran carried out three additional strikes against US forces in Jordan the same week.
“Those attacks injured dozens of US service members and damaged several helicopters,” NYT wrote, citing US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“But the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted,” the paper added.
Throughout the war launched by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Islamic Republic in February, the Pentagon has stated that “operational security” takes precedence over notifying the US public about developments in the war, including casualties to soldiers.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) is not required to release information about injured service members, a US military official said in response to the Iranian attacks last week.
Another US official said that doing so would help Iran more accurately target US soldiers in the region with its ballistic missiles and drones.
CENTCOM has also stopped announcing how many sites in Iran it hits each day for the same reason. The Pentagon has not given a major briefing on the war since May, providing little information about the US strategy.
US officials have also refused to comment on reports that the military is running low on missile interceptors, or how Iran continues to launch ballistic missiles after Trump declared Iran’s missile capabilities had been destroyed earlier in the war.
On 1 April, The Intercept reported that Washington was engaged in a “casualty cover-up,” saying that nearly 750 US soldiers had been injured or killed since October 2023 – a number far higher than US officials had admitted.
A total of 17 US service members have been killed and 400 injured in the war on Iran, according to the Pentagon’s official numbers. However, the number of injured has not been updated in recent weeks.
The two killed in Jordan were identified as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, from Texas.
In response to the soldiers’ deaths, President Trump said the troops died “in service of our country,” while claiming that the goal of the war is “never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Elsewhere, Trump has stated that the US is fighting the war for its Gulf allies. Other reports indicate Trump launched the war under pressure from Israel.
Hellbound and Down 