The War Department confirmed the identities early Monday of two soldiers who were killed in an Iranian missile attack on a Jordanian military base last week.
Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and First Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, died after Friday’s missile strike on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base east of Amman, according to a Pentagon statement.
Officials previously announced that a third service member, who has yet to be publicly identified, was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.
A total of 17 American service members have been killed since the launch of operation Epic Fury by the US and Israel Feb. 28.
Monday’s statement followed a ninth consecutive night of US airstrikes on Iran, which President Trump said were carried out “in honor of the … great patriots.”
“Well, we feel very badly, but you know those great people, those great patriots, were out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews after returning from Sunday’s World Cup final in New Jersey.
“Iran has been very, very badly damaged. They’ve lost everything almost militarily. They’ve got very little left. They’ve got some missiles. They’ve got some drones. They’ve got some manufacturing ability, not much. We control the Strait [of Hormuz]; they don’t control anything. So we’ll see what happens.”
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the latest strikes targeted “Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and communications networks.”
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that the American strikes killed at least one person around Tabriz, a northwestern city about 325 miles from Tehran that is believed to host underground missile bases run by the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
At least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest rounds of US strikes, according to Tehran authorities.
American strikes likely also hit Bandar Imam Khomeini in Khuzestan province, Sirik and Jask in Hormozgan province and Konarak and Chahbahar in Sistan and Baluchistan province, IRNA reported.
Iran responded Monday by attacking US partner countries throughout the Middle East. Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens, while Kuwait said its air defense were firing at an incoming Iranian barrage.
Meanwhile, a vessel caught fire early Monday in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile near the coast of Oman, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The crew abandoned the vessel, which was adrift and still ablaze hours later, the UKMTO said.
Despite the escalating hostilities, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Sunday that the US remains open to a negotiated settlement with Iran.
“I think we’re always open to diplomacy. It has to be real. It has to be a deal that they’re willing to live by,” Rubio said at Joint Base Andrews. “Look, Iran a week ago was supposed to put out a statement saying that the Straits of Hormuz would be opened and that they would no longer attack shipping.
“And instead of doing that, they attacked three ships. I think that was last Friday or Saturday. So I mean, their behavior has to change in order for ours to change.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei hours later acknowledged that “proposals conveyed through mediators have been communicated to us,” but he declined to elaborate on their substance.
With Post wires
