On Wednesday, the Pentagon was reporting that 18 Americans had died in the war against Iran. On Thursday, that number had changed to 14, leaving out the four troops who had been killed a week ago in Jordan and Iraq. Three military officials told The New York Times that one reason behind the change was that the Trump administration decided to remove those four service members killed 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, Joel Valdez, attributed the change instead to “temporary data disruptions” on the website that he suggested would be quickly fixed. As of Ju;y 25, that number still reads 14. An unnamed US official told ABC News that U.S. airstrikes targeting Iran since the Trump administration deemed that the war ended in May are being “referred to as ‘overseas operations.” ABC calls that label “a vague description that would be an unconventional label for a war,” which “subsequently makes it unclear how the war dead and wounded would be counted.”
