Three American service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during US attacks on Iran, the military said on Sunday, marking the first confirmed American casualties in the ongoing offensive that has triggered retaliation from the Islamic Republic.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees operations in the Middle East, announced the deaths in a post on X but did not disclose when or where they occurred.
The statement said “several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions" and were expected to return to duty. Central Command described the situation as “fluid" and said it would withhold the identities of the killed service members for 24 hours until their families were notified.
The US military also rejected Iranian claims that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier had been struck by ballistic missiles, stating on X that the “missiles launched didn’t even come close." The announcement comes after President Donald Trump had publicly acknowledged the risks involved in the operation.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties," the Republican president said in a video address released early Saturday. “That often happens in war. But we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future."
The US-Israeli campaign began with strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with other senior leaders. In response, Iran has launched missile and drone attacks on US bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened to carry out its “most intense offensive operation" yet against Israeli and American military installations.
Prior to the strikes, Trump had significantly expanded US military presence in the Middle East, deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers in January. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, along with four destroyers, was later dispatched from the Caribbean to reinforce regional operations.
The Ford had previously been involved in a US raid in Venezuela that led to the capture of the leader Nicolás Maduro. That January operation resulted in no American fatalities but left seven US troops injured by gunfire and shrapnel. One of those injured, Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover, was later awarded the Medal of Honour during Trump’s State of the Union address.
