\n<\/p>\n
As ceasefire negotiations<\/span> faltered and U.S. casualties of the Iran war mounted, the Trump administration on July 7 attempted to rebrand the struggling war effort by announcing the conclusion<\/a> of Operation Epic Fury.<\/p>\n But in the 12 weeks since, more U.S. military personnel have been injured and killed than in the 18 weeks of Epic Fury. Of the 880 U.S. troops left wounded or dead, 444 have occurred since July 7, according to the official Pentagon count.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump\u2019s war of choice<\/a> has left nearly 100 U.S. troops wounded or dead this month alone, according to the Pentagon. This includes 29 Navy sailors and eight Marines added last week to the official tally of those injured, following claims by a top Iranian official<\/a> that an attack with a new \u201canti-ship missile\u201d had \u201ccreated hell for the Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n The Marines were injured in a cruise missile attack on September 14, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity. The Marines were aboard an unidentified vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, they said, and potentially suffered brain trauma among other injuries. The attack was first reported by NBC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n A cargo ship was hit that same day by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations organization. The officials would not say if Marines have been stationed on commercial vessels transiting the Strait.<\/p>\n The Navy did not answer The Intercept\u2019s questions about when and where the sailors were wounded. A Navy official said that casualties had been \u201cfully validated\u201d but would not name the affected \u201cunits.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This latest in a series<\/a> of casualty spikes<\/a> comes as additional details<\/a> of the toll of Iranian attacks<\/a> on U.S. troops become more apparent. Air Force personnel, alone, endured more than 1,200 \u201calarm reds<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the official code for imminent attack by missiles, aircraft, or ground forces \u2014 during just 38 days earlier this year, according<\/a> to Air Force chief of staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach. He noted that these Iranian strikes also led to more than 420 \u201clong lonely walks\u201d by explosive ordnance disposal technicians. Dealing with such munitions can be lethal: Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton<\/a>, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, was killed and another soldier was wounded \u201cduring a controlled detonation<\/a>\u201d of an Iranian attack drone at Iraq\u2019s Erbil Air Base in July.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump recently said the\u00a0conflict with Iran is \u201csmall potatoes<\/a>,\u201d Vice President\u00a0JD Vance asserted it is not a \u201cwar,\u201d<\/a> and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced: \u201cThere haven\u2019t been American deaths<\/a>, it\u2019s really just an economic choke-out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At least 19 personnel have died according to the official Pentagon count of war dead, including 11 killed by hostile fire. The actual number of troop deaths in the region since the war began is higher. The latest known fatality is Capt. Bianca Wilkerson, 37, of Norfolk, Virginia, who died on September 18 from a \u201ccoronary issue,\u201d according to her brother. He said she returned from Saudi Arabia on September 10 and was headed back but died on the return flight, according to reporting <\/a>by the Virginian-Pilot.<\/p>\n For almost six months, The Intercept has reported on anomalies<\/a> in official counts offered<\/a> on the website <\/a>of the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, which tracks \u201cdeceased, wounded, ill or injured\u201d service members for\u00a0Congress and the White House. 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.<\/p>\n Prior reporting\u00a0by\u00a0The Intercept\u00a0also found<\/a> that the Pentagon\u2019s\u00a0official tally of dead and wounded personnel\u00a0is a gross undercount<\/a>, stemming from what one U.S. government official called a \u201ccasualty cover-up<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0When the Washington Post also recently suggested that the Pentagon had suppressed the casualty numbers, self-styled War Secretary Pete\u00a0Hegseth called<\/a> the report \u201cDISGUSTING and FAKE.\u201d<\/p>\n