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The US Army is training soldiers to dig mass graves for troops killed in battle for the first time since the 1950-53 Korean War, preparing for the possibility of large-scale casualties in a future conflict, according to a report by Newsweek magazine.
The report comes amid the ongoing Iran conflict, which has also raised questions over the toll on US military personnel. Last month, The Washington Post reported that at least 22 US military personnel had died, four more than the number listed in the Pentagon's public database.
The newspaper said some of the deaths were not directly linked to the months-long conflict but involved US personnel stationed in the Middle East amid the ongoing hostilities. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, however, dismissed the report as a "complete lie".
Meanwhile, Newsweek reported on Thursday that the drills, named Operation Dragon Covenant Phase II, began last month and were conducted at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. They involved soldiers from the 3rd Corps Sustainment Command and the 20th Engineer Brigade, along with military chaplains and other religious support personnel.
Using bulldozers, excavators and other heavy equipment, they practised setting up temporary burial sites and handling the remains of soldiers killed in large-scale combat.
In a statement, the Army said it had not needed to conduct mass temporary burials on this scale since the Korean War, during which 36,515 US personnel were killed or went missing and another 7,245 were captured.
During the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 25 years, the remains of American personnel who died on duty were quickly transported back to the US, without the need to establish large temporary burial grounds, the Newsweek report said citing the statement.
The renewed training is meant to prepare the military for situations where casualties are so high that teams may not be able to bury each soldier separately or perform individual religious rites, it added.
Combat operations may also continue even as teams work to recover and preserve the remains.
Under the Army's standard arrangement, a temporary burial site consists of five trenches with space for up to 100 casualties.
During the North Carolina exercise, soldiers used heavy machinery to prepare each plot in an average of one hour and 15 minutes, the military said.
The Army said eight bulldozers and four military excavators could help temporarily bury the remains of as many as 2,400 soldiers within 24 hours.
The exercise also focused on preserving bodies so they could be identified and eventually repatriated to the US.
Military rules make commanders at every level responsible for ensuring that the remains of fallen personnel are properly cared for and can be identified later.
Sergeant First Class Delbert Ruede of the 3rd Corps Sustainment Command told Newsweek that the exercise helped the military assess how it could manage and honour fallen soldiers during a war.
He said the training was aimed at replacing an improvised response in the event of war with a systematic, field-tested approach to handling the dead.
The drills also marked the first time in more than 20 years that US Army chaplains and other religious affairs personnel had received training in how to support temporary battlefield burials, the Army said.
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