0
0
Investigative news outlet The Intercept has reported that the Pentagon and US Central Command (CENTCOM) are engaged in a “casualty cover-up” regarding troop deaths and injury across the Middle East since regional hostilities erupted in October of 2023.
WaL closely reported, after Israel’s siege on Gaza began, on how many US soldiers were injured in mortar, rocket, and drone attacks in bases around the region by militia groups. Just a month after Hamas executed its lethal raids into Israeli territory, WaL reported that US bases in Iraq and Syria had been attacked 46 times, and 56 US personnel had been wounded.
The Pentagon at the time said only that the wounded had traumatic brain injuries, and that one contractor died of a heart attack. In January 29th, 3 soldiers were killed and 34 injured in an attack on a base in Jordan. By then, US positions had come under attack 150 times.
Now, The Intercept has arrived at a count of almost 750 killed or wounded, and leveled accusations that in attempting to get information on the individual events that add up to that figure, the Pentagon and CENTCOM routinely engage in delaying tactics and obfuscation.
One example the outlet cites is that 15 US soldiers were injured in an Iranian missile attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia last Friday, and that these were not included in a statement by CENTCOM given to The Intercept some days later, in which they said that 303 soldiers had been killed or injured since March 1st.
CENTOM then didn’t respond when this was highlighted, or more accurate requests were made thereafter.
“This is, quite obviously, a subject that [War Secretary Pete] Hegseth and the White House want to keep under major wraps,” said one War Department official who spoke to the paper on the condition of anonymity, and who described it as a “casualty cover-up”.
Other instances in which the War Department failed to provide timely and accurate responses to multiple outlets, not just The Intercept, involve the fire onboard the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier for which 200 sailors were treated for smoke inhalation, and a March 2nd drone attack on the Crowne Plaza hotel in Bahrain which injured two Pentagon officials, which was confirmed via a State Department cable reviewed by The Washington Post.
Indeed two government officials confirmed to The Intercept that US personnel on-base in the Gulf countries fled their positions into civilian hotels like Crowne Plaza, something that was pointed out by Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Araghchi, who warned Gulf country hotels to prohibit access to US military members, before accusing the latter of using the former as “human shields”.
Together with the Gerald Ford sailors, 520 military personnel have been injured, and 15 have been killed which is 2 more than what is currently being reported in media outlets like Al Jazeera. WaL
