Pentagon Updates Its Iran War Casualty Database to 21 Killed and 865 Wounded

The Defense Department edited its Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) website on a Friday (database change date; reporting followed over the next days) and did not announce it. Democracy Now reports: “The Defense Casualty Analysis System website now lists 21 service members killed, up from 18, and 865 wounded, 98 more than in August.” These outlets are secondary; DCAS itself blocks scripts and I did not reach a department release.

The Intercept counts the two deaths added on Friday and names Maj. Sorffly Davius, who died on duty in Kuwait on March 6 (incident date), plus an unidentified Navy suicide. It does not say whether the prior total was 18, so the outlets’ “up from 18” and the “two deaths added” are not reconciled here.

A department official told The Intercept of a new category: “This new category will allow the Department to minimize reporting delays.” Reps. Houlahan and Smith said: “There is no excuse for a mistake of this magnitude,” after their committee found “a discrepancy in the Pentagon’s reporting of casualty numbers.”

Earlier changes, per MS NOW: the total of 18 was reduced to 14 in July. The Intercept says 454 of the casualties in the count occurred since July 7, when the label changed to “Overseas Operations.”

Terms such as “cover-up” belong to the sources that use them, not to this entry.