The assistant to the US Secretary of War, Sean Parnell, has rejected the New York Times’ earlier report that the Pentagon withheld “dozens” of US military injuries in the Iran war.

In a statement on X, Parnell termed the claims “baseless and malicious accusations” and “outright lies from partisan hacks”.

“Injuries in the military encompass everything from minor sprained ankles during routine training to incidents entirely unrelated to combat operations,” he said. “Cherry-picking raw numbers without context paints a deliberately misleading and incomplete picture.”

He added that the military’s casualty information is publicly available and regularly updated online on the Defence Casualty Analysis System.