In the week before last Friday’s attack, which killed two U.S. soldiers and left one service member missing in Jordan, Iran carried out three additional strikes against U.S. forces in the country. Those attacks “wounded dozens of U.S. service members and damaged several helicopters,” the New York Times reports, citing multiple U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, and noting that the Pentagon did not disclose those earlier attacks or the resulting casualties and damage.

The episode underscores the tension between what the U.S. Department of Defense describes as operational security needs and the government’s obligation to inform the public about the conduct of the war, the newspaper observes. After those strikes, U.S. Central Command said it was responding to Iranian attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, without mentioning Iranian strikes on U.S. bases in the region, including the one in Jordan.

A U.S. military official told the New York Times that the service “is not required to disclose information about wounded service members, especially when they return quickly to duty,” emphasizing that releasing information that could help Iran would be counterproductive.

Since the collapse of the truce between Tehran and Washington and nearly five months of hostilities, the Pentagon has provided limited information on U.S. military strategy, the New York Times notes, recalling that the last briefing on the war took place in early May. Similarly, in recent months the administration led by Donald Trump has not disclosed how the conflict has depleted U.S. stocks of expensive and essential weapons, or how Iran has maintained and rebuilt its missile capabilities. According to Central Command, more than 400 U.S. service members have been wounded since the start of the fighting: the Pentagon initially reported regularly the total number of wounded who had returned to duty, but in recent weeks it has stopped updating the overall figure.

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