A U.S. service member was killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during what the military described as a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian attack drone. A second service member was wounded and is being treated for a minor injury.
The announcement came Sunday from U.S. Central Command, one day after the command confirmed that two American troops had been killed and a third was missing following an Iranian missile and drone attack on positions in Jordan.
CENTCOM also said Sunday that search teams had located unidentified remains at the site of the Jordan attack, and that an examination process to verify them is underway. The command is withholding the identities of the fallen and the missing until families are notified.
With these losses, seventeen American service members have now died in a war that is approaching its fifth month and that Congress never authorized.
The Official Statement
Here is the CENTCOM announcement in full, posted Sunday on X:
The President Was on a Golf Course
While the Pentagon was confirming the deaths in Jordan on Saturday, President Trump was at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The Daily Beast reported that a scheduled White House press pool call was pushed back twice that afternoon, first from noon to 2 p.m. and then to 4 p.m., as the administration worked out how to respond.
Trump did not address the nation. He did not hold a briefing. His first public comment came only after a NewsNation correspondent called him directly on Saturday evening and asked.
The president told the network the deaths were a very sad thing and said the troops had died in service of their country. In the same conversation, he said he could not care less that Iran has abandoned the interim agreement his administration negotiated.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered his own tribute on Saturday, calling the fallen heroes and saying their sacrifice stiffens American resolve.
The optics did not go unnoticed. Critics circulated images of the president at the club as the casualty reports came in, with one widely followed commentator noting that two Americans were dead while Trump mingled with paying members of his resort. It is not the first time. In March, after a seventh American was killed, the president skipped the dignified transfer ceremony and went golfing at Doral instead.
Eight Straight Nights of Strikes
The military response has been aggressive and continuous. CENTCOM said U.S. forces launched a new round of airstrikes Saturday evening at the president’s direction, concluding after more than five hours.
The stated purpose was to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and to punish the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps units believed responsible for the attack in Jordan. It was the eighth consecutive night of American strikes since the ceasefire collapsed over control of the strait.
Targets included Iranian coastal surveillance installations, air defense sites, maritime assets, and missile and drone storage facilities. The United States has also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Trump has publicly threatened to hit Iran’s power stations and bridges, and recent strike patterns suggest that campaign is already underway. The secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council has accused Iran of war crimes for its own strikes on civilian infrastructure across the region.
The escalation runs in both directions. Kuwait reported attacks on a power and desalination plant for a second straight day. Sirens sounded over Amman on Sunday as Jordanian air defenses intercepted incoming Iranian missiles.
Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, warned in a statement Saturday of unforgettable lessons if American attacks continue, and dismissed the president’s signature on the Islamabad memorandum as worthless.
Congress Voted to End This War. Trump Ignored It.
None of this has been authorized by the legislative branch. In June, a bipartisan majority in the Senate voted 50 to 48 to direct the president to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities with Iran, with Republicans Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski joining every Democrat. The House had passed the same measure 215 to 208 earlier that month.
The resolution was never sent to the White House for signature and carries no binding force, a technicality the administration has leaned on hard. The White House has questioned the constitutionality of the War Powers Act itself and has never submitted a request for an authorization for the use of military force. Trump responded to the House vote by calling it meaningless and accusing four Republicans and every Democrat of being unpatriotic.
Both chambers of Congress told this president to stop. He kept going. Seventeen families have now received the knock on the door.
What Happens Next
The names of the fallen have not been released. Somewhere in America, three sets of parents, spouses and children are being told that their world has changed permanently, and the commander in chief who sent their family members overseas could not be bothered to leave his golf club to say so himself.
The war has no congressional authorization, no defined objective, no exit plan and no end in sight. Oil prices are up. More than 430 Americans have been wounded. And the strikes continue nightly.
HELP US KEEP REPORTING WHAT THE BILLIONAIRE PRESS SOFTENS
Tonight you read about a third American killed in a war Congress voted to end, a commander in chief who answered for it only when a reporter dialed his phone, a bipartisan majority in both chambers steamrolled by an administration that says the Constitution does not apply to it, and a bombing campaign entering its ninth straight night with no stated finish line. Corporate outlets will file this under routine casualty coverage and move on. Democratic Reporter will not, because no billionaire signs our checks and none ever will. If this reporting mattered to you, the single most useful thing you can do is become a subscriber. Subscribe or upgrade today.
— The Democratic Reporter Team