Pentagon hiding US casualties in war against Iran: Report

An American news organization says hundreds of US troops have been killed or wounded in Iranian strikes that took place in retaliation for the US-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic, adding that the Pentagon is undercounting the casualties.  

The Intercept said that US Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in West Asia, offered it low-ball and outdated figures without providing clarifications on military deaths and injuries.
It cited a defense official as saying that CENTCOM is apparently engaged in a “casualty cover-up”.

The news outlet, quoted two government officials, as claiming that at least 15 US troops were injured in an Iranian attack on a Saudi air base that hosts American forces last Friday.

According to the report, CENTCOM has sent outdated statements on casualty numbers, resulting in undercounts, including a statement sent Monday from spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins noting that “Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 303 US service members have been wounded.”

The media outlet said the comment was three days old and excluded at least 15 wounded in the Friday attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

CENTCOM also would not provide a count of troops who have died in the region since the start of the war. The Intercept analysis puts the number at no less than 15.

“This is, quite obviously, a subject that [War Secretary Pete] Hegseth and the White House want to keep under major wraps,” said the defense official who asked not to be named.

The report also noted that the current CENTCOM casualty figures do not include over 200 sailors treated for smoke inhalation or otherwise injured due to a fire that raged aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford before its abrupt withdrawal.

The US Navy's most advanced and largest supercarrier, which was deployed to West Asia ahead of US-Israeli joint military aggression against Iran, was engulfed in flames earlier last month.

Following the incident, the aircraft carrier retreated from its positions to the Greek island of Crete, as the Pentagon attempted to frame the withdrawal as a mere mishap.

US officials claimed that the ship was limping for repairs after a "non-combat-related" fire broke out in the ship's main laundry spaces.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) rejected the Pentagon’s narrative as absurd, asking, "What kind of military giant is this that faces a crisis and is forced to leave the battlefield due to a fire occurring in its laundry room?"

The IRGC had already warned that the presence of the aircraft carrier in the Red Sea made it a legitimate target for the Iranian armed forces, as its presence in regional waters constitutes a direct threat to Iran.
Iran’s armed forces have previously reported successful drone and missile strikes against another US carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln.

“CENTCOM and the White House should be providing accurate and timely information on the costs and casualties involved in this war. After all, it is American taxpayers who are funding it and US economic prosperity and economic wellbeing that is being undermined by it,” Jennifer Kavanagh, the director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a think tank that advocates for measured US foreign policy, said.

Shortly after the US and Israel started an aggression on Iran on February 28, the country began to swiftly retaliate against the strikes by launching barrages of missile and drone attacks on the Israeli-occupied territories as well as on US bases and interests in regional countries.

CENTCOM refuses to even offer a simple count of US bases that have been attacked during the war. “We have nothing for you,” a spokesperson told The Intercept. The Intercept’s analysis, however, confirms that bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates have been targeted.

“Close US bases”

Iranian strikes have forced US troops to leave their bases and hide in hotels and office buildings across the region in violation of laws of war, according to the two government officials. The defense official slammed the Pentagon over its failure to protect the US troops.

Kavanagh, who previously called attention to the vulnerability of US outposts in West Asia, called for their closure. “It has been clear for years that the rapid proliferation of drones and cheap missiles would put US bases and US early detection radars in the region at risk, yet the Pentagon did little to protect them,” she said, adding, “The failure to invest in hardened infrastructure was a choice. Congress should see this failure as evidence that simply giving the Pentagon more money is not a path to national security.”

“We would be better off if bases across the region were closed for good,” she emphasized.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that US soldiers have abandoned their bases in the Persian Gulf Arab countries since the very beginning of the war, seeking shelter in civilian hotels and offices while turning local populations into “human shields”.

Araghchi drew a comparison to practices inside the United States, noting that American hotels routinely deny bookings to military officers whose presence could endanger civilian guests.

By hiding among civilians, the US not only violates basic principles of international humanitarian law but also endangers the very populations whose governments have hosted American bases and facilities long used to threaten regional stability and Iranian sovereignty.

Last month, an Iranian drone strike on a hotel hosting US troops in Bahrain reportedly left two War Department employees wounded, according to a State Department cable reviewed by the Washington Post. CENTCOM did not respond to a request to confirm to The Intercept that those injuries stem from a March 2 attack on the Crowne Plaza hotel, but one official indicated this was likely.

According to The Intercept, at least 15 US troops in West Asia have been killed since the beginning of the War on Iran, including six personnel who were killed in a drone strike on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, and a soldier who died due to an attack on March 1 at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia. Over 520 US personnel have also been injured, including those who suffered smoke inhalation on the Ford.

US official figures said only 13 American troops have so far been killed since the start of the US-Israeli aggression against Iran.

These figures are apparently inaccurately low as more than 500 US troops were targeted in operations announced on Saturday alone. The Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said the latest operations inflicted “very heavy losses” among them.

A day earlier, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced the targeting of six tactical vessels operated by the terrorist US military in the Persian Gulf waters, leaving “a large number” of American forces killed in the process.

The commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Force has called on the families of US military personnel deployed to West Asia to check on them, citing censorship of casualty figures by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM).

In a post on social media platform X on Wednesday, General Ali Jahan Shahi noted that the CENTCOM “has heavily censored the reported number of American soldiers killed!”

Picture link: https://theintercept.com/2026/04/01/iran-war-us-casualty-numbers-trump-hegseth/

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