Pentagon Blames Glitch After Iran War Death Toll Drops By Four

The Pentagon’s official database lowered the U.S. death toll associated with the Iran war Wednesday, prompting allegations that the Trump administration had used a ceasefire technicality to exclude four service members from the count. The department blamed the discrepancy on a “temporary data disruption.”

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The Defense Casualty Analysis System, the Pentagon database that tracks U.S. deaths associated with Operation Epic Fury, listed 14 fatalities Friday, even though President Donald Trump had said 18 service members were killed in the conflict. (RELATED: Ex-Trump Official Renews Calls For Boots On The Ground, Assassinating Top Iranian Diplomat)

The New York Times reported Thursday that the count had been lowered Wednesday. Three unnamed military officials told the outlet that the Trump administration had decided not to include four service members who died during a ceasefire.

The Times said its sources described sensitive internal discussions about how the deaths should be categorized.

Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs Sean Parnell fiercely denied the report, calling it “one of the worst instances of the Fake News media manufacturing lies out of thin air for absolutely no reason at all but to cause distress among the American people.”

Parnell said the Pentagon arranged an off-the-record call with the Times and explained that the discrepancy was caused by a technical problem with the casualty database. A team was working with the military services to correct the error, according to Parnell.

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Trump shared a graph Tuesday stating that 18 service members had died in the Iran conflict, juxtaposing the total with the thousands of American troops killed in previous wars.

“These are the real facts. REPORT THEM!” Trump said in the post.

The Daily Caller found that other figures in the casualty database also appeared to fluctuate, including the number of wounded service members.

The Department of War directed the Caller to Parnell’s statement after the outlet requested comment. The department did not answer a follow-up question seeking its official and current death toll for Operation Epic Fury.

The New York Times did not respond to the Caller’s request for evidence showing that the database had previously listed 18 fatalities, such as a screenshot or archived version of the page.

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