Pentagon reveals hundreds of new Iran war casualties

The Pentagon revealed Saturday that more than 600 troops have been injured or killed in the conflict with Iran, a casualty total more than 200 higher than previously revealed publicly. The new figures were released as part of an apparent overhaul of the Defense Department’s official casualty reporting system, which now splits the war, for the first time, into two time periods.

The new figures bring the current total of U.S. troops wounded in the war to 624, according to the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS. As of Friday, DCAS listed the number of troops injured in the conflict at 420.

The new system, mirroring labels announced by the Pentagon in recent weeks, removes most casualties in July from the tallies of Operation Epic Fury, and puts them instead in a new category, “Overseas Operations.”

Officials also split how they account for the 18 troops killed in the conflict, moving four from Epic Fury into Overseas Operations, including three soldiers killed July 17 in an Iranian attack in Jordan and another killed during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone in Iraq. Those four had been removed from the Pentagon tally late last week, prompting outrage from families of soldiers killed in July.

The new count begins for casualties on July 7, a date the Pentagon has claimed represented the end of Epic Fury. The Trump administration has argued this month that the operation ended on that date with the announcement of a short-lived ceasefire, reseting a legally-mandated 60-day clock to use military force without Congressional approval.

However, the pre- and post-July 7 fighting has been largely similar, with U.S. bombing missions trading blows with waves of Iranian missiles and drones. Trump himself has posted on social media that the “Iran Military Conflict” has seen 18 American service members killed, which includes the four killed after July 7.

Changing casualty numbers

The new figures represent close to 200 more wounded troops — mostly Army…