WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has again quietly raised the number of U.S. service members killed and wounded during operations related to the Iran war amid widening criticism over the lack of transparency about the conflict’s human and operational costs.The military now is reporting that 21 U.S. service members have been killed, from 18, and 865 wounded, up by 98 since August.The changes were posted Friday evening to the Defense Casualty Analysis System website, which offers a detailed breakdown of casualties by branch of service, rank, race and ethnicity.

The cause of the increased casualty numbers is not completely clear, since the hostilities between the United States and Iran have largely been in a lull for many weeks.

“There is no excuse for a mistake of this magnitude,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., said in a joint statement on Friday.The two House members had demanded an explanation from the Pentagon after the House Armed Services Committee discovered “a discrepancy in the Pentagon’s reporting of casualty numbers” and brought it to the White House’s attention.

“The failure of Secretary Hegseth to immediately take ownership of the problem also does a grave disservice to the men and women putting their lives on the line in service to our country,” they added.

The Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has deliberately withheld casualty numbers from the public, while also attacking reporters for publishing information on them.

In response to reporting by The Washington Post in September that more U.S. troops had died in support of the Iran war than the Pentagon had acknowledged, Hegseth took to social media to say, “This is DISGUSTING and FAKE. A complete LIE.”

The defense secretary also said the Post is “worse than Iranian state media.”

Hegseth’s office did not immediately respond to a request on Saturday for comment regarding the updated casualty numbers. The increase was reported earlier Saturday by the Post.

On July 20, the Pentagon added 100 casualties to the war’s tally without explanation. Three days later, the department lowered the number of troops killed during the war, which Hegseth calls Operation Epic Fury, from 18 to 14 — claiming the discrepancy was caused by “temporary data disruptions.”

Later that month, the Defense Department took the unusual step of claiming that Operation Epic Fury ended with President Donald Trump’s ceasefire announcement in June, and any further deaths and injuries would be accounted for as part of “overseas operations.”

The new casualty numbers come as the war with Iran continues to drag on. Critics have also said the Pentagon has not fully acknowledged the damage done to U.S. bases in the Middle East, which defense officials recognize may be abandoned rather than repaired.

In early July, U.S. Central Command, which directs military operations across the Middle East, resumed near daily airstrikes against Iran. By July 15, Trump had declared the ceasefire over and resumed a blockade of Iran’s ports by U.S. warships.

Days later, Iranian ballistic missiles struck a base hosting U.S. forces in Jordan, killing three American service members. By the end of the month, U.S. warplanes attacked more targets inside Iran and expanded the strikes to hit Iranian forces in Iraq as well.

A week ago, the Pentagon hastily evacuated B-1 bombers from an air base in Britain after receiving intelligence that Iran might try to attack them with drones.

And while Trump has not said whether he would resume attacks on Iran after the midterm elections Nov. 3, The New York Times reported Thursday that the U.S. military was preparing options to restart major combat operations against Iran.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2026 The New York Times Company