The number of wounded or killed US servicemen in the Iran war jumped to 774 after the Pentagon added a new round of injured soldiers in the last few days, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Out of the 774, 18 were killed, and the other 756 were wounded, said the WP, citing the Pentagon’s casualty reporting system.
The numbers rose despite an ongoing ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, although they may reflect a lag between an injury being documented in the military’s medical system and appearing in the casualty database, the WP reported.
US considering scaling back military presence
Although the ceasefire expired on Monday, large-scale combat has not resumed, and the US is considering scaling back its military presence in the Middle East.
The pull-back would involve making defense cuts in the Persian Gulf and not rebuilding bases damaged by Iranian attacks.
The report comes two months after several servicemen alleged that their injuries were more severe than their designations implied, creating a rift between what the Pentagon had revealed and troops’ personal accounts, with one sergeant claiming he “absolutely believed” that the Pentagon tried to downplay the strike in Kuwait that killed 6 US soldiers.