‘Picking numbers’: Trump administration slams report claiming Pentagon withheld data on troop injuries in Iran war
The Pentagon allegedly withheld information about an Iranian attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan that injured dozens of U.S. service members, The New York Times reported.Friday’s attack, which killed two U.S. soldiers and left another missing, comes a week after Iran carried out three other attacks on U.S. troops in Jordan, according to several U.S. officials. Officials said the attacks injured dozens of soldiers and damaged several helicopters.The Pentagon never disclosed these injuries.A U.S. military official told the New York Times that Central Command was under no obligation to release information about injured service members, especially if they were quickly returned to duty. Another official said the Pentagon would not share information that could help Iran tailor attacks on bases housing thousands of U.S. troops.
More than 400 U.S. troops have been injured since the war began
According to Central Command, more than 400 U.S. service members have been injured in the conflict in Iran. The Pentagon had previously reported total numbers of wounded and returning troops, but it had stopped updating that number in recent weeks.Four U.S. troops injured in Friday’s attack were taken to Jordanian hospitals and released, Central Command said in a statement on Saturday. Reports said more soldiers were slightly injured and returned to duty, but did not specify how many. The statement made no mention of soldiers wounded in three attacks in Jordan last week.
Pentagon denies withholding information
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell dismissed the New York Times report, calling it “baseless and malicious accusations” and “outright lies by the partisan hacks of The New York Times.”“The War Department rejects these baseless and malicious accusations of concealing the number of injured as outright lies by partisan hacks at The New York Times who are hell-bent on discrediting the U.S. military and its leadership,” Parnell said.He added: “The claims of concealment were fabricated to further inflict pain on the American people after three service members were killed in action. This behavior is abhorrent, even to The New York Times.”Parnell said U.S. military casualty information is public and regularly updated online on the Defense Casualty Analysis System for everyone, including the media, to view. He also believes that “injuries in the military range from minor ankle sprains during routine training to incidents completely unrelated to combat operations. Picking out raw data without context would be deliberately misleading and incomplete.“He said the military is “the most transparent war department in history” and challenged “the so-called journalists who write these lies” to “stop smearing the best fighting force on the planet.”
Pentagon Agreement and Presidential Response
Pentagon casualty reporting protocols require that deceased service members be publicly identified only 24 hours after next of kin is notified. The names of soldiers injured in action are not usually released.In a brief phone call with NewsNation, President Trump said troops died “serving our country” and reiterated the main goal of the war “to never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”Two Army soldiers died in Jordan and another in northern Iraq on Friday, bringing to 17 the total number of U.S. service members killed since the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Iran on February 28.
