The Intercept Sues Pentagon Over Iran War Casualty Records

The complaint, filed Friday in the Southern District of New York, accuses the department of failing to conduct a reasonable search and release nonexempt information. The Pentagon acknowledged receiving the requests but missed the legal deadline to fulfill them, according to the lawsuit.

The requests seek information on US casualties, briefings for Defense Department personnel, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, internal communications, directives on how casualties are counted and the war’s financial costs. Editor-in-chief Ben Muessig said the department had not provided a clear answer and that the public deserved transparency.

The Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System reported 23 US service members killed and 867 wounded in action as of its November 9 update, following the start of attacks against Iran on February 28. The Intercept says the figures contain discrepancies that remain unexplained. Its reporting by journalist Nick Turse has described deaths and injuries missing from official totals, as well as changes to the figures.

More than 200 sailors treated for lacerations or smoke inhalation were not listed, according to letters sent to Congress. The letters also cited a 15-person drop in the wounded tally in April, an Army death removed from the record in June after being listed in May, and 10 wounded troops who disappeared from the count days after being added in July. More than 68,000 letters were sent as part of a campaign launched in October urging Congress to investigate.

The outlet has also questioned why the Pentagon took more than six months to add Maj. Sorffly Davius, a New York Army National Guard signals and communications officer who died March 6 while on duty at Camp Buehring, Kuwait. The Intercept published 10 articles about his death before it appeared in the official tally.

The Intercept’s lawyers, Democracy Forward, are also representing it in a June lawsuit seeking Department of Homeland Security records about a database of activists who protested and recorded Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman said the public deserved information about the conflict’s human toll.

The lawsuit comes amid disputes over press access. In August, a CENTCOM public affairs official threatened to place Turse on a “list of people to disregard” after his questions about Iranian attacks, casualty figures and medical evacuations; CENTCOM later denied having a blacklist. A federal judge blocked an earlier effort to bar journalists from seeking information not officially authorized for release, and Hegseth has sought broader authority to withhold unclassified records under FOIA, the article reports.