A Fox News broadcast on Sunday focused on recent Iranian missile and drone strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East, following an announcement from United States Central Command (CENTCOM) confirming American military casualties.
CENTCOM announced Saturday that two U.S. service members were killed in action and one was missing following an Iranian ballistic missile and drone strike on a military base in Jordan. On Sunday, CENTCOM further announced that a service member in northern Iraq was killed Saturday while attempting to neutralize unexploded ordnance from an Iranian drone.
CENTCOM added that unidentified remains discovered at the base in Jordan were undergoing an examination process.
During an appearance on Sunday Morning Futures, former Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates addressed questions from host Maria Bartiromo regarding Iran’s current operational capabilities. Bartiromo noted President Donald Trump’s statements that Iran’s military had been “obliterated” and asked how the strike in Jordan inflicted casualties.
“Yes, and if you look at the numbers of missiles that they’ve been able to fire off from the beginning of this war — you know, late February, early March — and what they’re able to do now, it is very seriously degraded,” Coates said.
The exchanges followed a collapse of a ceasefire on July 7, which led President Trump to reimpose sanctions after Iranian attacks on merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the collapse, Iran has reportedly launched attacks against targets across Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Syria, and Iraq. Prior to July 7, both the U.S. and Iran had engaged in military strikes, with each side alleging the other violated the June 14 ceasefire agreement.
Coates referenced recent diplomatic and regional security developments, noting that President Trump met Tuesday with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi and is scheduled to meet with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
She also pointed to an action by Syrian authorities, who intercepted an Iranian weapons shipment intended for Hezbollah, and noted joint efforts between Iraq and Syria to restart an oil pipeline to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
“It shows you the situation is not what it was five years ago, when Iran could act with impunity in Syria,” Coates said.
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