Report says Iran struck U.S. forces in Jordan three times before Friday’s deadly attack. But the Pentagon never disclosed it

Iran reportedly carried out three separate strikes against U.S. forces in Jordan in the week before Friday’s attack that killed two American soldiers and left one service member missing, according to several U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss operational matters.

Those earlier strikes reportedly injured dozens of U.S. service members and damaged several helicopters, the officials said. The Pentagon did not disclose these strikes or the casualties and damage they reportedly caused at the time they occurred.

However, on Monday, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, said on social media that U.S. military casualties from Iranian attacks since July 7 had climbed to nearly 100, according to The New York Times.

Pentagon says it has not concealed casualty information

This is not the first time tension has emerged between the Pentagon’s stated need for operational security and its obligation to keep the public informed during the Iran conflict, according to the report.

In statements following U.S. airstrikes on Iranian military sites last week, U.S. Central Command reportedly said the strikes were in retaliation for Iran’s attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

A U.S. military official said Central Command is not required to release information about injured service members, particularly when they return to duty quickly. Another U.S. military official reportedly said that disclosing such details could help Iran improve the accuracy of its ballistic missile and drone attacks against Jordan and other U.S. bases in the Middle East. 

Central Command has also stopped announcing the number of sites it strikes in Iran each day, according to U.S. officials, for similar security reasons. Parnell said the military has not withheld or misrepresented U.S. casualties in the war. “Claims of concealment are fabrications meant to further distress the American people in the wake of three service members killed in action,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Parnell pointed to the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System, which he said is “regularly updated” with the latest figures on dead and wounded troops. According to the report, the publicly available site provides only aggregate numbers and does not include details on specific mass-casualty attacks, such as those that reportedly occurred in Jordan over the past week.

“Cherry-picking raw numbers without context paints a deliberately misleading and incomplete picture,” Parnell said. Parnell later said on social media that the “vast majority” of the nearly 100 casualties since July 7 involved “mild concussions,” and that 96 percent of those service members have since returned to duty.

According to the report, the Pentagon has provided little information about American military strategy since the collapse of a fragile truce, and the last major Pentagon briefing on the war reportedly took place in early May.

The report also states that the Trump administration has not disclosed how the war has affected U.S. supplies of certain costly weapons, or the extent to which Iran has retained or rebuilt its missile capabilities. A defense report revealed the U.S. lost 39 aircraft in Iran, a fact the Pentagon never disclosed.

The deaths of two Army soldiers in Jordan on Friday, along with the death of another service member in northern Iraq, bring the total number of American military personnel killed since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28 to 17, according to the report.

Under the Pentagon’s casualty reporting protocols, the names of deceased service members are typically released publicly only after 24 hours have passed since next of kin were notified. The names of those wounded in action are typically not released.

In a statement Saturday, Central Command said four American service members wounded in Friday’s attack were treated at Jordanian hospitals and have since been discharged. The statement said additional troops sustained minor injuries and returned to duty, but did not specify how many. 

The statement reportedly did not mention service members injured in the three earlier attacks in Jordan. Similar retaliatory actions have followed other deadly attacks on U.S. bases in the region.

In a brief phone call with NewsNation, President Trump said the troops died “in service of our country” and reiterated that the war’s primary goal is “never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media Saturday that the loss of the two U.S. soldiers would strengthen American resolve.

According to the Pentagon’s casualty reporting site, 427 U.S. service members have been injured in the Iran conflict, and the site lists 14 troops killed in hostile and nonhostile incidents. These figures reportedly have not yet been updated to include the deaths announced by the Pentagon over the weekend.

Parnell said the wounded figures include “everything from minor sprained ankles during routine training to incidents entirely unrelated to combat operations.”

According to the report, previous administrations typically delayed releasing details on injured service members until family notifications were complete, and the Biden administration reportedly disclosed the number of troops injured in attacks by Iran-backed militias on U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq. More than 1,700 Iranian civilians are estimated to have died in the war, according to available estimates.