The United States has spent a total of 37.5 billion dollars on the war against Iran so far

U.S. Defense Secretary Hagel said that the U.S. war against Iran has cost $37.5 billion so far, an increase of nearly $8 billion compared to the previous publicly estimated figure.

According to a report by Reuters and another report by the Associated Press, Hegese gave this estimate during his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday (July 21st). The focus of this hearing was on President Trump's request to increase the defense budget by $67 billion.

Heges said that the $37.5 billion estimate covers "certain aspects" of the military operations as of today and some expected costs, such as military pay up to September 30. It is not yet clear whether this estimate includes the losses at US military bases.

In mid-May, Pentagon officials said that the war had cost approximately $29 billion - this figure does not include the losses at US military bases.

This war intensified after the fragile ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran broke down, and it pushed up energy prices. At the hearing, Heges was criticized by Democrats for the escalating nature of this unpopular conflict.

Heges said to the committee, "I hope all of you here can view what President Trump is doing from a historical perspective. Don't you want extremist Islamic elements to possess nuclear weapons?"

In March this year, a source told Reuters that the Trump administration estimated that the cost of the first six days of the war with Iran had already reached at least 11.3 billion US dollars.

Heges told the lawmakers that if there was no urgent increase in funds, military training would have to be scaled back.

This was the first time that Hegese had publicly responded to the inquiries of the lawmakers since the United States resumed its military operations against Iran at the beginning of this month. He attended the hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee together with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Kane.

The war between the United States and Iran has so far claimed the lives of 17 American soldiers and injured approximately 430 others.

The Pentagon said on Monday that since July 7th, 100 US soldiers have been injured, but 96% of them have returned to their posts. It is not yet clear how many of these injured personnel are included in the 430 injured US soldiers recorded in the Pentagon's public database.