TEHRAN – The US Department of Defense has quietly changed the way it records and publishes casualties from the war against Iran. 

The move has fueled questions over the transparency and accuracy of Washington’s official casualty figures.

According to US media reports, the Pentagon last week abruptly revised its publicly available casualty data, reducing the number of American troops listed as killed in Operation Epic Fury from 18 to 14 while also removing dozens of wounded service members from the operation's casualty count.

The Defense Department has now shifted its public reporting in the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) from the category "Operation Epic Fury" to a newly created classification labeled "Overseas Operations." The change effectively restarts the official accounting of US military deaths and injuries related to the conflict with Iran.

The Pentagon has not explained how it defines the new "Overseas Operations" category or whether it is intended solely to cover casualties from the Iran war. The Defense Department did not respond to media requests seeking clarification.

The DCAS database serves as the Pentagon's official public repository for US military casualties from both ongoing and past conflicts and is regarded as the federal government's authoritative record of war casualties.

Analysts say separating different phases of the same conflict into distinct reporting categories is highly unusual and could make it more difficult to determine the full extent of US military losses.

Figures published under the new category indicate that 207 additional American service members have been wounded since July 7, bringing the total number of reported US wounded to at least 624 since the United States and Israel launched the war against Iran in February.

Observers suggest the reporting change may reflect the Trump administration's position that Operation Epic Fury concluded in May and that the subsequent resumption of hostilities constituted a separate phase of military operations. Critics argue that such a distinction could have implications for the 60-day limit on military action without congressional authorization under US law.

The issue has also become the subject of political debate in Washington. Last week, the US House of Representatives approved an Iran war powers resolution seeking congressional authorization for continued US military involvement, although the measure was later blocked by Senate Republicans.

Republican Representative Thomas Massie criticized the Pentagon's accounting changes, accusing the Defense Department of attempting to portray the conflict as two separate wars divided by a brief ceasefire in order to circumvent legal restrictions on presidential war powers.

Earlier, when questioned about the revised casualty figures, Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez attributed the discrepancies to technical issues affecting the department's website, saying only that "site anomalies are currently being resolved in coordination with the military services," without addressing the apparent changes to the casualty totals.