WASHINGTON (AP) — Three American service members have been killed and 5 others severely wounded through the U.S. attacks on Iran, the navy mentioned Sunday, marking the primary American casualties in a serious offensive that has sparked retaliation from the Islamic Republic.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Center East, introduced the deaths in a put up on X however didn’t say when and the place they occurred. The assertion mentioned “a number of others sustained minor shrapnel accidents and concussions” and have been going to return to obligation.
Central Command described the state of affairs “as fluid” and mentioned it could withhold the identities of the service members who have been killed for twenty-four hours after their households have been notified.
The U.S. navy additionally denied Iranian claims that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was struck with ballistic missiles, saying on X that the “missiles launched didn’t even come shut.”
President Donald Trump had warned that American troops may very well be killed or injured within the operation.
“The lives of brave American heroes could also be misplaced, and we could have casualties,” the Republican president mentioned in a video deal with launched early Saturday. “That always occurs in battle. However we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the longer term.”
Following the U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and different leaders, Iran’s counterattacks have struck U.S. bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever focusing on Israeli and American navy installations.
Earlier than the strikes, Trump had built up the largest U.S. military presence within the Center East in a long time. The arrival of the Lincoln and three accompanying guided-missile destroyers on the finish of January bolstered the variety of warships within the area.
The world’s largest plane provider, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and 4 accompanying destroyers later have been dispatched from the Caribbean Sea to move to the Center East.
The Ford was a part of the U.S. raid in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro, who was dropped at New York to face drug trafficking charges. The operation in January claimed no American lives however left seven U.S. troops with gunshot wounds and shrapnel-related accidents.
A kind of injured received the Medal of Honor throughout Trump’s State of the Union deal with final week. Trump mentioned Military Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover piloted the lead CH-47 Chinook helicopter that descended on the “closely protected navy fortress” the place Maduro was staying.
Trump has launched a number of navy operations throughout his second time period, together with strikes on members of the Islamic State group in Syria in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter in December.
The U.S. navy has additionally struck IS forces in Nigeria, after Trump accused the West African nation’s authorities of failing to rein in the targeting of Christians.