The Pentagon instructed military officials last month to stop referring to current U.S. operations against Iran as “Operation Epic Fury,” even as American and Iranian forces continue exchanging attacks, according to an internal Air Force email obtained by CBS News.
The Aug. 7 directive, which CBS News first reported Tuesday, instructed senior public affairs personnel to describe the continuing military activity instead as “overseas operations in the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility.”
According to CBS, the instruction originated with War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s central public affairs office, headed by chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. Officials were also reminded that public statements concerning the Iran conflict require approval from U.S. Central Command.
After CBS sought clarification, the Pentagon said Wednesday that “Operation Epic Fury” had officially concluded on May 5. The campaign had begun Feb. 28 with coordinated American and Israeli strikes against Iran, meaning the Pentagon’s August instruction came approximately three months after the operation was officially deemed over.
Until the Pentagon’s disclosure this week, both the department and U.S. Central Command had repeatedly declined for months to publicly provide an official date marking the conclusion of the operation.
The May 5 date corresponds with remarks made that day by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House, when he announced that the military campaign bearing the “Epic Fury” name had concluded and that U.S. efforts were moving into another phase.
“The operation is over. ‘Epic Fury’ is, the president notified Congress, we’re done with that stage of it. We’re now on to this ‘Project Freedom,'” Rubio told reporters, referring to a defensive maritime operation intended to safeguard commercial vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
President Donald Trump had informed congressional leaders four days earlier that hostilities with Iran had “terminated.” That notification came as the administration confronted the 60-day limit established under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which was enacted after the Vietnam War to constrain prolonged military action undertaken without congressional authorization.
The precise end date for “Epic Fury” has implications extending beyond what the military calls the campaign, particularly when it comes to how American casualties are officially recorded.
According to CBS, four U.S. service members who died in mid-July were originally classified in the Defense Casualty Analysis System as casualties of “Epic Fury.” Three of those troops were killed at Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base after an Iranian missile struck their barracks. Several days later, the four deaths were reassigned to a newly created “overseas operations” category, which technically lowered the official “Epic Fury” death toll from 18 to 14.
At the time of those changes, Parnell said they resulted from a “temporary data disruption,” according to CBS.
A War Department official subsequently told the network that because “Epic Fury” is considered finished, casualties occurring afterward are being categorized as part of overseas operations within CENTCOM’s area of responsibility.
Questions remain, however, about the consistency of those classifications. CBS reported that the Pentagon’s publicly accessible casualty database continues to categorize five troops wounded in June and one service member killed in July under “Epic Fury,” while the database does not list an official end date for the operation.
The conflict itself has continued despite the administration’s designation that the original operation ended in May. On July 7, Trump formally informed Congress that U.S. military action against Iran had resumed. The administration maintains that the renewed action began a new 60-day period under the War Powers Resolution.
Since that notification, Iranian and American forces have continued exchanging attacks. The latest escalation this week included two rounds of U.S. strikes followed by Iranian retaliatory attacks.
The Pentagon has not explained why officials waited until August to circulate instructions telling senior military personnel to stop using the “Operation Epic Fury” name when, according to the department’s newly disclosed timeline, the operation had officially ended three months earlier.
{Matzav.com}
