Hegseth called higher-toll report a fabrication
The Pentagon added two noncombatant deaths to its Defense Casualty Analysis System on Friday, raising the recorded death toll of the Iran war to 21. The system had previously recorded 19 deaths and lists at least 865 service members as injured.
One of the newly recorded deaths is Maj. Sorffly Davius, 46, of the Army National Guard, who died in Kuwait on March 6, The Washington Post reported. The other is an unidentified Navy servicemember who died by suicide in September.
The Pentagon divides casualties from the war into two categories, one for Operation Epic Fury and another for the conflict since July. In the first category, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, 15 service members were killed and 417 wounded. Since July 7, six troops were killed and 448 wounded.
The update comes after The Washington Post reported that the war’s death toll was higher than the Pentagon was reporting to the public. At the time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the report a fabrication. “This is DISGUSTING and FAKE,” Hegseth wrote in a statement on X. “A complete LIE.”
In a statement to The Post, the Pentagon said it “continues to maintain a steadfast commitment to the transparent, accurate accounting of all Service member casualties.”
“There is no excuse for a mistake of this magnitude,” Reps. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Chrissy Houlahann, D-Penn., said in a statement. “While we take seriously our duty to serve as the voice of the American people and hold the executive branch accountable as a co-equal branch of government, requiring Congress to step in to rectify such an egregious error is an embarrassment for the Department.”
“The failure of Secretary Hegseth to immediately take ownership of the problem also does a grave disservice to the men and women putting their lives on the line in service to our country,” Smith and Houlahann said.