‘Shameful’: Pentagon accused of cover-up over US military casualties in Iran war

No press briefing has been held for months, as the defence department belatedly or inaccurately releases figures The Pentagon is taking a “shameful approach” to releasing information about US casualties in the Iran war, Leon Panetta, a former defence secretary and CIA director, has told the Guardian. The defence department has not held a press briefing for two and a half months. Officials have faced accusations that they are engaged in a cover-up designed to hide the true cost of Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran, fearing a public backlash before November’s midterm elections. Panetta, who held weekly Pentagon briefings during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, criticised the department for failing to disclose how many people had been hurt in bomb attacks by Iran on US bases. “There’s a deliberate effort here to basically withhold information from the American people, and I think it represents in many ways a shameful approach to sharing the responsibility that we all have when it comes to fighting a war,” he said by phone. A fragile ceasefire between the ​US and Iran collapsed earlier this month and both ​sides have been carrying out daily strikes against each ot