Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois accused President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of concealing the true scope of American casualties in the Iran war, citing a report that the Pentagon withheld information about dozens of troop injuries.
“Trump and Hegseth are covering up attacks on our troops,” Duckworth wrote on X. “18 American servicemembers have been killed, one is missing in action and at least 500 have been wounded. Americans deserve the truth.”
Duckworth, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Army Black Hawk pilot who lost both legs when her helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq in 2004, was responding to a New York Times report alleging that in the week before a July 17 Iranian attack that killed two U.S. soldiers and left one service member missing in Jordan, Iran carried out three other strikes against U.S. forces in the country that injured dozens of troops and damaged several helicopters, none of which the Pentagon publicly disclosed.
The Times reported that U.S. Central Command’s public statements following retaliatory strikes on Iranian military sites cited Iran’s attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz without mentioning the strikes on U.S. bases in Jordan, and that a military official said Central Command is not required to release information about injured service members, particularly when they quickly return to duty.
Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell disputed the Times’ characterization in a statement to the paper, saying, “Claims of concealment are fabrications meant to further distress the American people in the wake of three service members killed in action.” Parnell pointed to the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System, which he said is regularly updated with casualty information, though the site’s public data does not break out casualties by specific attack. He later posted on social media that nearly 100 troops were injured in Iranian strikes since July 7, with the “vast majority” involving “mild concussions” and 96 percent of those affected having returned to duty.
The Defense Casualty Analysis System listed 427 U.S. service members injured and 14 killed in hostile and non-hostile incidents connected to the Iran conflict as of the Times report, though the site’s death count had not yet been updated to include the deaths CENTCOM announced over the weekend. The Pentagon’s confirmed death toll for the war has since risen to 18, with the previously missing service member from the Jordan attack, Army Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, later confirmed killed in that assault.
Duckworth’s committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, holds oversight jurisdiction over the Defense Department and has repeatedly pressed Hegseth on personnel and transparency issues throughout his tenure. Duckworth was among the senators who voted against Hegseth’s confirmation in 2025, previously calling him “not qualified” and “out of touch” with the military, according to a statement from her office at the time.
Duckworth was among the first Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom, deploying in 2004 as a Black Hawk pilot with the Illinois Army National Guard before her aircraft was struck by an RPG north of Baghdad, an injury that earned her a Purple Heart. She has served on the Senate Armed Services Committee since 2019 and previously served on the House Armed Services Committee during her time in the House.
The Times report noted that the Pentagon has provided little public information about American military strategy since the collapse of a ceasefire earlier this month, with its last major briefing on the war held in early May. The administration has also not disclosed how the war has drained U.S. stockpiles of costly weapons systems or detailed how Iran has retained and rebuilt missile capabilities despite months of U.S. strikes.
Duckworth’s statement adds to a broader pattern of Democratic criticism following the Times report. Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote that the Trump administration “WITHHELD” the injury figures, and Sen. Mark Warner separately called the Pentagon’s “failure to disclose strikes that resulted in U.S. casualties” alarming. Rep. Shontel Brown and Rep. James Clyburn have separately accused the administration of trying to minimize or cover up the war’s true toll.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has issued a direct public response to Duckworth’s statement.