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The Trump administration quietly revised the U.S. troop death count in the Iran war from 18 to 14 this week, seemingly removing the deaths of the four troops killed this past weekend in Iranian strikes even as the administration faces accusations of cover-ups with regard to American casualties of the war.

The New York Times reported that, on Wednesday, the Pentagon website that logs troop casualties said that 18 troops had been killed in total as a result of the war, dubbed Operation Epic Fury by the administration.

However, on Thursday, four troops’ deaths were removed, and the total deaths listed on the website decreased to 14. The removed deaths specifically appeared to be those of the three soldiers killed in Jordan and the one killed in Iraq this past weekend.

The Department of Defense’s acting press secretary, Joel Valdez, said the change was due to “temporary data disruptions” and would be swiftly fixed. As of Friday morning eastern time, the casualty counts listed on the website remained at 14.

But this wasn’t the explanation given to the Times by three other military officials, who instead said that one reason for the change was that, as the Times wrote, “their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April.”

Trump........

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