US President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran for each American soldier killed as fighting escalates.
According to the NY Post, at least 17 American soldiers have been killed in the war. Three Americans were killed since Friday, with a fourth missing and presumed dead in the first fatalities since March.
Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and First Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, died after Friday’s missile strike on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base east of Amman, according to a Pentagon statement.
“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military.”
The US has bombed Iran for nine consecutive nights following the collapse of last month’s memorandum of understanding that called for a 60-day reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and continued nuclear talks.
Qatar has floated a 10-day cease-fire to de-escalate the renewed fighting, which began when Iran attacked commercial ships in the strait for following a US-preferred route rather than one closer to Iran.
Trump “knows Iran is trying to provoke him into another unpopular escalation and damage him further politically in advance of the midterms — yet he needs to respond to direct attacks on US troops,” a former White House official said.
“Anything that provides Trump a face-saving way to de-escalate is bad for the Iranian hardliners.”
The war only weeks ago appeared all-but over with the reopening of the strait sending global oil prices dropping and dramatically reducing US inflation in June.
Trump tore up the MOU after the Iranian ship attacks, saying that violence is the only language understood by Tehran’s theocracy.
