Pentagon's online list of service members killed in the Iran conflict does not currently include four soldiers who died during fighting over the weekend, even though their names appeared in a press release announcing the return of their remains to the United States on Wednesday. The Defense Casualty Analysis System website, updated Wednesday, shows 14 U.S. personnel killed in the conflict known as Operation Epic Fury, while a separate Names of Fallen list contains 13 names.

A New York Times report said the website initially listed 18 killed on Wednesday but was revised Thursday to exclude three service members killed in an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan and a fourth killed in a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone at Erbil air base in Iraq. By Thursday the defense department reported a total of 14 deaths.

Three military officials told the Times that the administration removed the four weekend deaths because they occurred after President Trump declared a cease‑fire in April. Pentagon spokesperson said the change resulted from temporary data disruptions expected to be corrected.

The revisions took place the day after Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to receive the remains of the four soldiers and to publicly honor them. Trump posted a chart comparing the 18 deaths in his Iran war with previous conflicts, misstating casualty figures from Iraq and Afghanistan, and asserted that the low death toll demonstrated the war's necessity to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, a claim contradicted by intelligence assessments that Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. He said the soldiers were heroes who opposed Iran having a nuclear weapon, and repeated that the 18 deaths were far fewer than the thousands lost in Vietnam.

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie said the Pentagon's exclusion of the recent deaths reflected a claim that the war had ended in June when Trump signed a temporary cease‑fire at the palace of Versailles, calling the situation an "absurd ruse" and asserting that the defense secretary was breaking the law by acting without congressional authorization.

The Pentagon has not responded to inquiries about the list update, and the discrepancy in casualty reporting remains unresolved.