<\/p>\n
The U.S. military<\/span> revealed that an additional 60 service members have been injured in the Iran war, lifting the official toll to 776 troops wounded or killed. Some 345 of these casualties have occurred since July 7, after a second ceasefire imploded<\/a>. As the numbers of dead and wounded troops have recently mounted, the Pentagon has quietly been seeking casualty and mortuary services, according to government contracting documents analyzed by The Intercept.<\/p>\n The increase of 60 wounded last week was called \u201can accounting trick,\u201d by one U.S. government official who accused the Pentagon of \u201cslow-walking\u201d the total for weeks. \u201cThey wanted the heat on them to slow down after the really devastating attacks,\u201d that source told The Intercept, referencing airstrikes on U.S. bases last month that exposed the vulnerability of U.S. troops to Iranian attacks.<\/p>\n The office of self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth did not respond to multiple requests for comment, including when and where the injuries occurred.<\/p>\n Since the beginning of the Trump administration\u2019s war with Iran, Hegseth\u2019s department has posted the official count of casualties on the website of the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, which\u00a0tracks<\/a>\u00a0\u201cdeceased, wounded, ill or injured\u201d service members for\u00a0Congress and the White House. Casualties since July 7 are now counted separately<\/a> on a webpage with a generic title: \u201cOverseas Operations.\u201d Combined with totals for\u00a0Operation Epic Fury<\/a> \u2014 the military\u2019s official designation for the initial months of the Iran war \u2014 18 service members have died and 758 have been wounded since the U.S. launched the war against Iran on February 28, according to DCAS. This official\u00a0total\u00a0of dead and wounded personnel, as documented<\/a> over months<\/a> of reporting by The Intercept,\u00a0has been a\u00a0gross\u00a0undercount<\/a>, stemming from what that same official previously called a \u201ccasualty cover-up<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the face of the increasing number of dead and wounded troops, the military has been seeking a range of services related to personnel who are killed or wounded, according to new contracting documents analyzed by The Intercept. While the military regularly awards such contracts, the commands involved have not replied to questions concerning the possible relationship to the current conflict.<\/p>\n On Friday, for example, the Air Force announced it awarded a new contract<\/a> for a full range of mortuary services at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. This includes transportation and refrigeration of remains, embalming, dressing, casketing or cremation, as well as funeral services. Last week, the Air Force also began looking into local firms that could fulfill a wide-ranging contract \u2014 including \u201cmortuary services<\/a>\u201d \u2014 at Italy\u2019s Aviano Air Base, a key hub<\/a> for the war with Iran.<\/p>\n The public affairs offices at Robins Air Base and Aviano Air Base did not return requests for comment prior to publication.<\/p>\n Last week, the Army also announced<\/a> it \u201cdesires to procure\u201d casualty administrative support, including casualty case management services, at Fort Knox, Kentucky, for the Army\u2019s Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Division. Over 90 percent of the latest casualties are Army soldiers, and its storied Fort Knox base has been intimately involved<\/a> in the conflict with Iran. The body of 26-year-old Sgt.\u00a0Benjamin Pennington<\/a> \u2014 who died of injuries resulting from an Iranian strike on a U.S. base in Saudi Arabia in March and was the first Kentuckian to die in the war \u2014 was sent home via Godman Army Airfield<\/a> at Fort Knox. Six soldiers killed in an Iranian strike in Kuwait that same month were operating<\/a> under the 1st Theater Sustainment Command which is headquartered at the base.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fort Knox did not respond to a request for comment and further information about the contract and the losses from the war prior to publication.<\/p>\n The recent casualty spike resulted from Iranian attacks on around 10 U.S. outposts across the Middle East since July 9, according to a second U.S. official who previously spoke<\/a> to The Intercept. Iran\u2019s military managed to\u00a0overwhelm<\/a>\u00a0U.S. air defense systems using a mix of attack drones and advanced ballistic missiles, despite\u00a0months of\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0by President Donald Trump and Hegseth that Iran\u2019s military\u00a0was annihilated<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last month, the tally of wounded personnel fluctuated by the day in the wake of increased Iranian attacks. On July 21, the casualty count on DCAS for Operation Epic Fury stood at 500. Now, it has shrunk to 431.<\/p>\n For months, The Intercept found anomalies with the counts offered on the DCAS website. On April 21, for example, the number of\u00a0wounded-in-action troops declined by 15<\/a>\u00a0without public acknowledgment by the War Department. Despite repeated questions for months, the Pentagon has not commented on the disparities in its casualty count.<\/p>\n