According to Sina Finance, citing CCTV News, six U.S. officials familiar with internal Pentagon casualty statistics said U.S. military deaths during the ongoing Iran war in the Middle East were actually higher than the number publicly disclosed by the Pentagon. Five of the officials said at least 22 service members had died, four more than the figure shown by the Pentagon's Defense Casualty Analysis System. Another official said 23 U.S. service members had died since the joint U.S.-Israel military strike on Iran on February 28, adding that not all undisclosed deaths were directly related to the conflict.