How many U.S. military personnel were actually casualties? American media has confirmed that the Pentagon indeed concealed the truth.

The New York Times reported on the 20th, citing multiple anonymous U.S. officials, that prior to Iran’s attack on October 17—which resulted in the deaths of two U.S. soldiers and one missing person at a base in Jordan—Iran carried out three additional attacks against U.S. forces stationed in Jordan during the previous week. Dozens of U.S. troops were injured, and several helicopters were damaged. However, these attacks, casualties, and equipment losses were not disclosed by either the U.S. military command or the Pentagon.

Last week’s U.S. air strikes against Iran were described by U.S. Central Command in a statement solely as a response to Iran’s attack on the Hormuz merchant vessel—completely omitting any mention of Iran’s earlier retaliatory strikes against U.S. military bases across the Middle East, including in Jordan.

The Pentagon has offered two excuses:

First, “injured personnel who can return to duty have no obligation to be reported.” According to U.S. military regulations, the identities of fallen soldiers are not disclosed until 24 hours after notifying their families; injuries are typically not publicly announced. This time, even collective figures such as “dozens injured + helicopters damaged” were suppressed. The reason given was “to avoid providing Iran with excessive data,” thereby preventing Iran from analyzing the situation and launching another round of precise counterattacks.

Second, “to maintain operational security.” Furthermore, U.S. Central Command has recently stopped updating daily reports on the number of targets struck inside Iran. The most recent major briefing was in early May, and under the Trump administration, information about the consumption of key U.S. weapon stockpiles is no longer being released.

This clearly indicates that the U.S. side deliberately withheld information.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1871319050138624/

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