The US Department of Defence has raised the officially recorded number of military deaths linked to operations against Iran to 21, after adding two non-combat deaths to the Defence Casualty Analysis System, while updated data showed that 865 US service members had been injured.
Non-combat deaths added to military records
The update included the death of Major Sorfley Davius, 46, a member of the Army National Guard, in Kuwait on 6 March 2026, as well as the suicide of a US Navy service member during September. A US official said both cases had been recorded as non-combat deaths linked to the operations.
Earlier reports, based on accounts from six US officials familiar with internal casualty data, had indicated that the number of deaths among military personnel deployed in the Middle East exceeded the figure shown in the Pentagon’s public database. Five of the officials estimated the toll at no fewer than 22 deaths at the time, while a sixth put it at 23.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously described those reports as completely false, before the overall toll was later raised with the addition of new deaths. The Defence Casualty Analysis System contains records of service members killed or injured during wars and contingency operations, whether as a result of combat or non-combat causes.
Training death raises Middle East toll
In a separate update, the US Army acknowledged the death of 26-year-old Staff Sergeant Devin Saibel in a training accident in Iraq on 31 May. His death was recorded under Operation Inherent Resolve against Islamic State, rather than under the ongoing operations against Iran. Including Saibel’s death, the total number of US military deaths in the Middle East since operations against Iran began on 28 February 2026 rises to 22, although the official toll directly linked by the US administration to those operations remains at 21 deaths.
Democratic Representatives Adam Smith, the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, and Chrissy Houlahan, the committee’s senior Democrat on the Subcommittee on Military Personnel, welcomed what they described as a public correction of the overall casualty figures.
The two representatives said that “there is no excuse for an error of this magnitude” and said that Congress having to intervene to press the Pentagon to correct its figures was embarrassing for the military institution. Their position comes amid criticism over delays in updating the records and the difficulty of determining the actual casualty toll. The US Department of Defence said it was making further changes to how casualties are presented in its system, including creating a new category for cases “pending determination” while casualty reports are reviewed.
Defence changes how casualty data are presented
The department reaffirmed its commitment to what it described as transparent and accurate accounting of all losses among armed forces personnel. The casualty-recording mechanism had changed during the operations after an “Overseas Contingency Operations” category was created to record deaths and injuries no longer listed under the name of Operation Epic Fury.
In previous conflicts, deaths and injuries, including those resulting from accidents or suicide, were usually recorded under the name of the relevant military operation.
