More American troops have died in the Iran War than President Donald Trump’s administration has revealed, according to a new report.
At least 22 service members have been killed in the conflict, five U.S. officials familiar with the Pentagon’s internal casualty accounting data told The Washington Post.
The estimate accounts for four more than the 18 military fatalities posted on a public government database known as the Defense Casualty Analysis System, according to the Post.
The Independent has reached out to the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, which conducts military operations in the Middle East, for comment.
A sixth U.S. official who spoke to the Post said 23 troops have died in the Middle East during the war, but noted that not all of the undisclosed fatalities are directly tied to the conflict.
As of Friday, the Pentagon’s database showed seven hostile and seven non-hostile deaths during the U.S. military campaign against Iran, which it has dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.”
An additional four hostile deaths were listed in a separate category called “Overseas Operations” that started on July 7 — around the time when a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran collapsed.
Since the start of the Iran War, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced concern about the toll that the conflict will take on troops.
“The Washington war machine is trying to turn Iran into another Iraq. Our troops are not to be used for another endless war,” Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, said in March.
In July, Trump attended the dignified transfer of four service members killed in the Middle East — the third such ritual that the president attended since the start of the war.
The president saluted as four transfer cases carrying the troops’ bodies were carried off a plane at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Trump told reporters as he headed to Dover that the ceremony is “one of the hardest things to do as a president.”
"There's no games, there's no nothing — that's their child,” the president said. “And all you can do is throw out your heart."
The soldiers honored in the dignified transfer include Army 1st Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, a 25-year-old from Hawaii, and Army Private Isabella Gonzales, a 19-year-old from Texas, who both died from an Iranian attack at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17.
Army Sergeant Angel S. Rampersad, a 28-year-old from New York who is believed to have been killed in the Jordan attack, was also honored, as was Army Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton, a 30-year-old from North Carolina who was killed during a controlled detonation of a downed drone at the Erbil Air Base in Iraq on July 19.
The war, which has dragged on for nearly seven months, remains unpopular among Americans.
Sixty percent of voters said Trump made the wrong decision in taking military action against Iran, according to a new Fox News poll.
The results were even bleaker when asked about the president’s plan for peace, with 71 percent of voters saying the Trump administration does not have a clear strategy for ending the war.
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