Pentagon quietly admits true death toll of Iran war as 21 Americans are killed and hundreds are injured | 10 Oct 2026 | The Pentagon has quietly raised the death toll of Americans killed in the war with Iran to 21, weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth branded reports of missing casualties “a complete LIE.” The new total was added to the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) late Friday evening, exposing a stark gap between the military’s earlier public death toll. At the time, the Pentagon’s database listed 18 U.S. military deaths since the start of the Iran war, including those caused by both hostile and non-hostile actions. But the latest tally includes two deaths newly classified as noncombat. The database also lists 865 U.S. service members wounded since the war with Iran began, as the conflict continues to face widespread opposition among the American public, according to polls… Over the summer, the Pentagon began separating casualties from the Iran war into two categories: Operation Epic Fury, the name assigned to the conflict, and Overseas Operations, a separate classification.