The Pentagon did not disclose injuries suffered by dozens of U.S. troops in Jordan by Iran earlier this month, according to a report that a Pentagon spokesperson furiously denied at length.
The New York Times reported Monday on the damage done by Iran’s strikes against U.S. troops stationed in Jordan in the days before its deadly attack on Friday that killed two soldiers and left another missing. According to the paper, the Pentagon did not disclose Iran’s earlier strikes or the dozens of injuries they caused.
U.S. Central Command, in statements last week, said the U.S. was retaliating for Iranian strikes on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command did not mention Iran’s strikes in Jordan.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell disputed the Times’ report in a four-paragraph statement in which he made personal attacks on journalists.
“The Department of War rejects these baseless and malicious accusations of hiding injury numbers as outright lies from partisan hacks at the New York Times who are desperate to smear America’s military and its leadership,” Parnell, 45, wrote on X.
“Claims of concealment are fabrications meant to further distress the American people in the wake of three service members killed in action. Disgusting behavior, even for the New York Times. In fact, U.S. military casualty information is publicly available and regularly updated online on the Defense Casualty Analysis System for everyone, including the media, to review,” Parnell continued.
A third U.S. service member died Saturday in northern Iraq from an Iranian drone. The total of U.S. fatalities from Trump’s war now stands at 17.
The Defense Casualty Analysis System that Parnell mentioned, the Times reports, “does not include information on specific mass-casualty attacks of the sort that have occurred in Jordan over the last week.” As of publication, it has not been updated with last week’s deaths.
Parnell also said that injuries could mean anything from sprained ankles to “incidents entirely unrelated to combat operations.”
“Cherry-picking raw numbers without context paints a deliberately misleading and incomplete picture,” he said.
“Our troops execute the President’s directives with excellence, supported by superior training, equipment, and medical care that prioritizes safety,” he concluded, claiming in that the Pentagon is “the most transparent” ever.
“We challenge the so-called journalists who wrote these lies, one of whom was recently subpoenaed regarding an alleged violation of federal criminal law, to stop the smears against the finest warfighting force on Earth,” wrote Parnell, a failed House and Senate candidate whose latter campaign unraveled after allegations—which he denies—of abusing his wife and children.
Parnell appeared to be referring to the paper’s reporting on the new Air Force One and how it wasn’t fully equipped to be transporting the president, which Donald Trump has admitted. The Justice Department has gone to the courts to try to gain access to certain journalists’ sources.
In response to Parnell’s rebuttal, the Times issued a statement standing by its reporting.
“We’re confident in our reporting’s accuracy, which found that the Pentagon did not disclose several Iranian strikes against U.S. forces, nor the resulting casualties and damage,” a spokesperson said. “Our reporting is based on information from several U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. This is important accountability journalism that helps Americans understand how their government is operating.”
When reached for comment, the Pentagon referred the Daily Beast to Parnell’s initial statement as well as a follow-up about troops’ injuries.
“While nearly 100 service members were deemed to have some degree of injury since July 7, 2026, 96% have returned duty. They are determined to get back in the fight,” he wrote on X. “The vast majority of injuries experienced were minor concussions.”
Also on Monday, acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez denied that injury data was being “intentionally withheld from the public,” and said that the DCAS was “currently being updated with new information.”
“The NYT also never gave us a chance to respond to this false allegation before publication, and they apologized to us this morning for it,” Valdez also claimed.
When reached for comment about that allegation, a Times spokesperson said in a statement: “Our article included a comment from Central Command at publication and has been updated to include comments from the Pentagon spokesperson as well.”
According to the Defense Casualty Analysis System, 427 troops have been injured in the war, which Trump initially said would only last a couple of weeks. It is now in its fifth month.
