BY SRH
More US troops have died during the war with Iran than the Pentagon has publicly disclosed, the Washington Post reported Friday, citing six US officials familiar with the Defense Department’s internal casualty accounting data.
There have been at least 22 military fatalities, four more than the data available in the Pentagon’s public database, the newspaper cited five of the officials as saying. The sixth official put the figure at 23, saying that not all of the undisclosed fatalities were directly linked to the fighting but included American military personnel deployed to the Middle East during the conflict.
That official said three US contractors in the region have also been killed since the start of the war.
The report did not offer further details about the circumstances of the deaths, and the newspaper said the identities of those killed remained unclear.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied the report.
“This is DISGUSTING and FAKE. A complete LIE,” Hegseth wrote on X. “Shame on the Washington Post — they’re worse than Iranian state media.”
The casualties are just one measure of the impact of the Iran war, which has also affected oil prices as well as the stock market, and, according to a new estimate provided to lawmakers, cost the US military $43.6 billion as of September 3.
The figure from US Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, offers the most up-to-date cost for the conflict since it was launched by the United States and Israel on February 28. A Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday said the war had cost $38 billion through August 1 and will continue to rack up expenses of around $3 billion a month depending on the conflict’s intensity.
The new breakdown, seen by the Associated Press and reported earlier by Bloomberg and Punchbowl News, also showed the continued use of expensive munitions by American forces. Weapons costs jumped by more than $6 billion in just over a month, from $21.7 billion listed in the CBO report to $28.1 billion in US Central Command’s estimate.
The latest cost estimate has emerged as the Trump administration pushes for a historic $1.5 trillion military budget proposal. The White House is also asking Congress to approve a $95 billion package that would help fund the Iran war and other priorities.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called for the budget’s passage during a speech Friday in Austin, Texas, at Saronic Technologies, which makes drones for the Navy.
“We’re asking for $1.5 trillion in the current budget to make generational investments to keep our country strong and sustain good, high-paying jobs for American manufacturers like Saronic,” Hegseth said. “We will deliver on this generational investment. We will fund this department.”
Meanwhile, Democratic senators are demanding that Hegseth provide a full accounting of the costs of the Iran war. In a letter to the Pentagon chief, the lawmakers criticized the Defense Department for withholding basic budget information from Congress and the American public even as US casualties and taxpayer costs increase.
The US military’s one-page breakdown to Congress this week includes costs for operating warships, planes and bases as well as for equipment losses and medical support for troops.
The report does not include damage to US bases in the Middle East, which the Islamic Republic has attacked with ballistic missiles and drones. A report from the Pentagon inspector general released Monday said Iranian strikes have damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.
In the new report to Congress, the figure for munitions was by far the largest, constituting well over half of all costs. The advanced weapons that have been in the most demand are defensive missile interceptors, such as those launched by the Army’s Patriot and THAAD systems.
The diminished stockpiles have also raised alarms in Europe, where US and NATO officials have told the AP that there is a “beyond critical” shortage of missile interceptors. Saudi Arabia also is running low on interceptors and has turned to regional and Western allies for assistance as its standoff with Houthi rebels in Yemen drags on.
Missing F-35 parts
Also Friday, Politico reported that sensitive F-35 parts went missing after being suddenly diverted to Hong Kong on their journey from Australia to the United States, raising the prospect that China may have obtained highly classified fighter jet technology.
Citing three people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss the private discussions, the report said the Pentagon confirmed the disappearance, which occurred during the summer, saying it was “aware of a shipment issue of unserviceable F-35 Lightning II components” and was working to retrieve them.
One of the missing parts includes one of the jet’s canopies, which benefits from unique stealth technology available only to the US and its allies — among them Israel, two of the sources told Politico. A rival could reverse-engineer the part if they obtained it.
The report noted it was unclear why the components, which were being transported by an intermediary on behalf of F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin, were diverted to Hong Kong.
“Our teams handle every shipment with the utmost diligence and safeguards to ensure the integrity of the F-35 program and the security of our allied partners,” Lockheed told Politico in response, while saying it could not discuss the status of the shipment for security reasons.
Key Congressional national security committees and State and Defense Department officials were briefed on the matter in June, with additional meetings to be held in the upcoming weeks, sources quoted by the outlet said. Source: timesofisrael
