US Army practises digging mass graves that could bury 2,400 troops a day amid fears of war with Iran
The exercise, dubbed Operation Dragon Covenant Phase II, is the largest mass-burial drill the US Army has conducted since the Korean War, when nearly 37,000 American personnel were killed. Held at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, it brought together the 3rd Corps Sustainment Command and the 20th Engineer Brigade, whose troops used bulldozers and excavators to dig temporary burial trenches, placing sealed water containers and model skeletons inside to determine whether the pressure of overlying soil would damage human remains.
Planners calculated that a company equipped with eight bulldozers and four excavators could dig and fill enough trenches to inter 2,400 soldiers per day on a round-the-clock schedule.
The drill is taking place against a backdrop of reported briefings by America's top Middle East commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, to Trump on options for resuming attacks on Iran, after a leaked military plan was described as 'devastating' by Democrat Senator Chris Murphy.
India Today reported that at least 22 US military personnel have already died in the ongoing Iran conflict — four more than the Pentagon's public database listed — a figure Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed as 'a complete lie'.