Washington, 27 July (H.S.): The US Department of Defense headquarters, the Pentagon, was forced to update its database of military casualties from the Iran war following intense criticism. On Saturday, the database was updated to include 140 additional injured soldiers and the names of four soldiers who were killed in Iranian attacks last week. According to the revised database, 18 US service members have been killed and 624 injured since the war against Iran began on February 28.

According to reports by CNN and CBS News, the latest update added a new tracking category titled “Overseas Operations” for deceased and injured personnel in the Defense Casualty Analysis System. Last week, the Pentagon faced criticism from media organisations and lawmakers over discrepancies in its casualty records. Twelve Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday, seeking clarification on the matter.

Acting Defense Department Press Secretary Joel Valdez said in a post on X on Thursday that the figures displayed on the website were inaccurate due to a temporary disruption affecting the data. The New York Times was the first to report the issue with the casualty database.

Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Sean Parnell later issued a statement on X, attributing the discrepancy to a temporary data interruption caused by technical issues on the Defense Casualty Analysis System website. Parnell also criticised The New York Times over its report on the database error.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar