Two House Democrats have sent a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth questioning the Pentagon's methodology in counting and disclosing U.S. military casualties from the Iran war, and launched an investigation into the matter, according to U.S. media report on Tuesday.
Nearly 100 Democratic representatives signed onto the letter, which expressed concern that the Pentagon had long delayed releasing the number of wounded service members, and that some records of killed and injured personnel had temporarily disappeared from the Defense Casualty Analysis System database.
Four deaths and dozens of injuries disappeared from the totals on July 23 after the Defense Casualty Analysis System website had correctly listed the total number of U.S. troops killed in the war at 18 earlier in the week.
In response, the Pentagon attributed the changes to a "technical error," later restoring the data and adding a new category to track casualties occurring after July 7.
The two legislators, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, said that the critical date of July 7 coincides with the Trump administration's formal notification to Congress under the War Powers Resolution, which marked the beginning of a new phase of conflict with Iran.
They accused the Pentagon of potentially using the reclassification to circumvent the War Powers Resolution, which requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of introducing U.S. armed forces into hostilities and limits unauthorized military engagements to 60 days.
The Pentagon has not yet issued an official response to the lawmakers' inquiry.
U.S. lawmakers question Pentagon's casualty reporting in Iran war
