Dozens more troops added to tally of wounded in Iran war amid new strikes

After a resumption in fighting over the last week, the Pentagon added dozens of wounded troops to its online tally of casualties in the Iran conflict. As of Friday, Sept. 4, 794 troops have been wounded in action since the start of the Iran war.

The update comes two weeks after the Pentagon confirmed that the number of service members wounded in the war had surpassed 750.

The 794 troops wounded in the conflict is the full number reported since the U.S. began its extended bombing campaign in Iran, though the Pentagon has begun to report troops injured since early July separately from those wounded in the war’s initial months. Officials now classify early casualties under Operation Epic Fury, while counting those injured more recently as having occurred in “overseas operations.” 

The update comes after several Iranian attacks on American bases in the Middle East in the last five days, including on sites in Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait. The Pentagon does not report where casualties occurred, but does segment them by the service. All of the new reported casualties this week are from the Army. Of the 377 wounded in action since July 7, 346 are soldiers, along with 21 sailors and 10 airmen.

The database does not say when casualties occurred or where. Injuries are often not immediately logged. Some injuries, like traumatic brain injuries, can be detected days or weeks after the combat that causes them. Additionally, a full accounting of injuries from a combat incident can take several days to reach Pentagon casualty logs. 

The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command did not respond to questions about the nature or timing of these newly reported casualties.

After days of back-and-forth attacks in July, including strikes that killed U.S. service members in Jordan, fighting paused for most of August. Hostilities resumed on Aug. 30, shortly after CENTCOM declared mines had been cleared from shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz. On Sunday, the U.S. military struck Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, saying that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was preparing to launch sea mines into the waterway. Iran in turn fired missiles and drones at American positions in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates the next day.

Iran claimed those attacks damaged two bases, although both the U.S. and Jordanian army said that missiles were either intercepted or fell on remote areas. The UAE also claimed to have intercepted a drone.