By BEN FINLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three American service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during the U.S. attacks on Iran, the military announced Sunday, marking the first American casualties in a major offensive that President Donald Trump said could likely lead to more losses in the coming weeks.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, announced the deaths in a post on X but did not say when and where they occurred as the Islamic Republic retaliates over the joint strikes by the U.S. and Israel. The post said “several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions” and were going to return to duty.
“We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen,” Trump said in a video posted to his Truth Social platform on Sunday afternoon. “And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is. Likely be more, but we’ll do everything possible where that won’t be the case.”
In the roughly six-minute video, Trump called those killed “true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives.” He said the U.S. will avenge their deaths.
Trump earlier told the Daily Mail in a phone interview Sunday that the U.S. troops who were killed were “great people.”
“You know, we expect that to happen, unfortunately,” Trump told the newspaper. “Could happen continuous — it could happen again.”
He also told the Daily Mail that he believes the conflict could last for “four weeks or so.” He had previously warned that American troops could be killed or injured 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.”
Central Command, meanwhile, described the situation “as fluid” and said it would withhold the identities of the service members who were killed for 24 hours after their families were notified.
Following the U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other leaders, Iran’s counterattacks have struck U.S. bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
The U.S. military 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 close.”
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israeli and American military installations.
Before the strikes, Trump had built up the largest U.S. military presence in the Middle East in decades. The arrival of the Lincoln and three accompanying guided-missile destroyers at the end of January bolstered the number of warships in the region.
The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and four accompanying destroyers later were dispatched from the Caribbean Sea to head to the Middle East.
The Ford was part of the U.S. raid in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges. The operation in January claimed no American lives but left seven U.S. troops with gunshot wounds and shrapnel-related injuries.
One of those injured received the Medal of Honor during Trump’s State of the Union address last week. Trump said Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover piloted the lead CH-47 Chinook helicopter that descended on the “heavily protected military fortress” where Maduro was staying.
Trump has launched several military operations during his second term, including 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. military has also struck IS forces in Nigeria, after Trump accused the West African country’s government of failing to rein in the targeting of Christians.
