Iran Kills U.S. Service Members in Jordan and Iraq, CENTCOM Finds Remains: 23 Sources (West Asian: 14) | NewsCord
Deaths in Jordan and Iraq
The U.S. military said CENTCOM found unidentified remains at the site earlier today after a thorough search for the third missing American service member in Jordan following an Iranian attack on July 17.
In a separate incident, CENTCOM announced the death of a U.S. service member in northern Iraq on July 18 during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance stemming from an Iranian suicide drone that had crashed earlier.
CENTCOM added that a second American service member was wounded in the Iraq incident and is still receiving medical treatment for a minor injury.
The BBC reported that two U.S. service members were killed and one remains missing after Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks in Jordan on Friday, and that four U.S. service members were medically evacuated to Jordan hospitals before being discharged.
Airstrikes and political fallout
After the deaths of two service members in Jordan, the BBC said on Saturday night the U.S. launched another round of air strikes against Iran at President Donald Trump‘s direction, with the strikes described as designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The BBC also quoted Centcom saying the strikes aim to “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night,” while it reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei accused the U.S. of seeking to “escalate the conflict“.
In a separate report, The Washington Post said a person familiar with internal U.S. government discussions told the paper, “The United States is planning for a broader war.”
The Washington Post further reported that Trump described the killing of two service members in Jordan as a “very distressing” event in a brief telephone interview with NewsNation.
What comes next
CENTCOM emphasized that it would withhold additional information, including the identities of the missing and the deceased, out of respect for their families’ privacy during notification procedures.
The BBC said Centcom would withhold additional information “until 24 hours after the next of kin have been notified,” and it reported that the U.S. death toll in the conflict has now risen to 16 after an American Navy pilot who went missing earlier this month was declared dead.
In the same BBC account, Jordan’s military said it had intercepted 10 Iranian missiles fired into its airspace overnight, without reporting any damage, while the U.S. Department of State issued a notice advising Americans worldwide, but particularly in the Middle East, to exercise “increased caution“.
Ratopati reported that after the death of U.S. soldiers in an attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan, the U.S. retaliated by launching airstrikes on the military structures of Iran’s paramilitary force ‘Revolutionary Guard’ on Sunday, with the report adding that the conflict centered around the Strait of Hormuz had entered its eighth day.