The Pentagon acknowledged an additional 142 service members wounded in President Donald Trump's Iran war by quietly adding a new category to its online database of U.S. military casualties, according to reports Sunday.

The change also resulted in the restoration of four fatalities that had been removed from the Defense Casualty Analysis System, triggering outrage among military families, veterans and lawmakers. (snip)

The new category, titled "Overseas Operations," tallies casualties — including the deaths of 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, Pvt. Isabella Gonzales and Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton —inflicted by Iran since July 7, when fighting resumed following a fragile ceasefire that began April 8.

Earlier casualties are listed in a category called "Operation Epic Fury," the name given to the war Trump launched without congressional authorization on Feb. 28. Outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has called it an "absurd ruse" to separate the war's casualties by date.

The Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, also featured a new tracking category — “Overseas Operations” — for killed and wounded “starting July 7.”

When the new Pentagon data is combined with updated totals for Operation Epic Fury, 18 troops have died and another 624 have been wounded since the US launched its war against Iran on Feb. 28. The number of wounded is a significant increase from the previous peak of 482 observed by CNN last week.(snip)

The Defense Department’s acting press secretary, Joel Valdez, insisted in a Thursday social media post that the decreases were due to “temporary data disruptions on the (DCAS) website.” CNN observed data glitches that led to fluctuating casualty totals when monitoring the DCAS site on a minute-by-minute basis last week.