The Pentagon quietly added 37 wounded troops to its Iran war tally. But it still hasn’t explained how they were hurt

The Pentagon’s public wounded count for the Iran war rose by 37 this week, The Washington Post reported after reviewing the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS. The department did not offer an explanation for the increase.

The additional cases involve 29 Navy sailors and 8 Marines, according to that review. As of Wednesday, DCAS listed 861 troops wounded since hostilities began.

More than half of the wounded cases in the database are listed under “Overseas Operations” after a July ceasefire between Washington and Tehran later collapsed. Earlier killed and wounded cases were recorded under “Operation Epic Fury,” the name the Trump administration used for the war.

Officials have not described incidents tied to the latest wounded cases

DCAS does not say how the 37 troops were wounded or when the injuries happened, the Post reported. A Navy official said the sailors returned to duty after the unspecified injuries.

President Donald Trump and other senior officials have said since the ceasefire that the fighting is not a war. Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Sept. 3 that “Right now, there is no active shooting.”

Defense officials have said DCAS entries can lag for days or longer. They have cited delayed reporting of concussions and brain injuries when symptoms do not appear right away.

Pentagon spokespeople did not return requests for comment, according to the Post. The Navy and Marine Corps sent questions to U.S. Central Command. A Central Command spokesman declined to comment.

Military officials have not publicly described any recent attack on U.S. forces or other event that would account for the 37 wounded cases, the Post reported.

Casualty accounting drew scrutiny earlier this year after the names of four U.S. troops who died as a result of the Iran war were briefly left off the Pentagon’s official tally, the newspaper reported.

Last week, the Post reported that more American service members have died in the Middle East during the Iran conflict than the Pentagon has listed in public. The Pentagon has also quietly updated its official war casualty database, such as when it added more than 140 wounded service members over the weekend.

Officials said as many as five military deaths are missing from DCAS, and that gap has not been resolved. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that the article was inaccurate and called the reporting “disgusting.”

When that earlier story ran, DCAS showed 18 U.S. personnel dead from hostile and nonhostile action since Feb. 28, the date the Post said the Trump administration, working with Israel, began the Iran war. The conflict has already killed 18 troops and cost billions, as a recent report detailed. The Post reported that not every undisclosed death is tied directly to the conflict, but that the personnel were in the region during the fighting.

DCAS later raised the death total to 19 after an Army officer died following a medical emergency on Sept. 18 while flying to the Middle East, according to the Post.

The newspaper said nonhostile deaths in DCAS have historically included accidents, sudden health crises, and self-inflicted wounds, including suicides.

The Post reported that polls show the Iran war is deeply unpopular with the American public and could be a political problem for Trump and Republicans before the November midterm elections.

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that Tehran had made an overture to Washington to restart peace talks.