BlockBeats News, May 12: A Pentagon official stated that the cost of the U.S.-Iran conflict has increased by an additional $4 billion from two weeks ago, bringing the total cost to approximately $29 billion. Pentagon's Inspector General, Jay Hurst, testified before Congress on Tuesday local time, mentioning that the increase in cost is mainly due to "equipment maintenance and replacement cost updates, as well as overall operational expenses."

Earlier, Hurst had informed Congress at the end of April that the total cost of the war was around $25 billion. Reports indicate that although the Pentagon's current public estimate is $29 billion, some external organizations believe that when accounting for long-term military deployments, energy market impacts, and macroeconomic effects, the overall economic cost of this conflict could approach $200 billion.