The Pentagon confirmed Monday the identities of two U.S. Army soldiers killed during an Iranian missile strike on a military installation in Jordan last week.
Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, died following Friday’s strike at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, located east of Amman, military officials said. Defense officials previously reported that a third service member was killed Saturday in Iraq during the controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone. That individual’s identity has not yet been released.
A total of 17 U.S. service members have died since the start of Operation Epic Fury, launched jointly by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.
The release of the names coincided with a ninth consecutive night of U.S. airstrikes against targets inside Iran. President Donald Trump addressed the operation while speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday evening following his return from the World Cup final in New Jersey.
“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 said. “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.”
U.S. Central Command stated that the recent strikes targeted Iranian command centers, air defense facilities, coastal surveillance networks, maritime units, missile and drone sites, and communications infrastructure.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported at least one fatality near Tabriz, a city in northwestern Iran located approximately 325 miles from Tehran that houses underground missile sites operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Official figures from Tehran cite at least 50 deaths and 517 injuries resulting from the recent U.S. strikes.
According to IRNA, U.S. operations also targeted locations in Bandar Imam Khomeini, Sirik, Jask, Konarak, and Chahbahar.
Iranian forces retaliated Monday with strikes directed at U.S. partner countries across the region. Missile alerts were activated in Bahrain, while air defense systems in Kuwait engaged incoming barrages. In the Strait of Hormuz, the UK Maritime Trade Operations center reported that a merchant vessel caught fire near the Omani coast after being hit by a projectile, forcing the crew to abandon ship.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated Sunday that Washington remains open to diplomatic channels under specific conditions.
“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 acknowledged later that proposals passed through third-party mediators had been received, though he provided no specific details regarding their contents.
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