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On Wednesday, the Pentagon reported on its casualties website that a total of 18 American service members had been killed during the war in Iran.
By Thursday, the Defense Department had lowered that number, reporting that 14 American troops had been killed in the war.
Three military officials said that one reason behind the change was that the Trump administration decided to remove four service members killed this past weekend from the list " three in Jordan and one in northern Iraq " because their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April.
The officials described sensitive internal discussions on the condition of anonymity.
The acting press secretary for the Pentagon, Joel Valdez, attributed the change instead to "temporary data disruptions" on the website that he suggested would be quickly fixed.