(NEXSTAR) — Two additional U.S. service members have been killed in action in the military’s operation against Iran, authorities confirmed Monday.
In an update shortly after 4 p.m. ET, the U.S. Central Command reported that the death toll among service members has risen to six, up from four earlier in the day.
“U.S. forces recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran’s initial attacks in the region,” CENTCOM said in a post to X. “Major combat operations continue.”
Their identities are being withheld until their next of kin have been notified, officials added.
CENTCOM on Sunday confirmed the deaths of three service members, believed to be the first Americans killed in Operation Epic Fury, and five had been injured. The statement said “several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions” and were going to return to duty.
President Trump, in a video update posted hours later, said, “there will likely be more” U.S. service members killed in Iran.
The death toll has grown on all sides since the operation began over the weekend.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said at least 555 people have been killed. In Israel, where several locations were hit by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed. Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah killed dozens of people in Lebanon. Three people were reported killed in the United Arab Emirates, and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.
Iran’s top diplomat on Monday shared an aerial photo showing rows of graves that he said were for more than 160 girls killed during a U.S.-Israeli strike on an elementary school in Minab. “Their bodies were torn to shreds,” Abbas Araghchi, the country’s foreign minister, said on X.
In Israel, three young siblings killed by a deadly Iranian missile strike were being laid to rest at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on Monday night. Yaakov, 16, Avigail 15, and Sarah Biton, 13, were among the nine killed Sunday when a missile slammed into a shelter located in a synagogue in Beit Shemesh.
Israel and the United States pounded Iran on Monday, while Tehran and its allies hit back against Israel, Gulf states, and targets critical to the world’s energy production.
The intensity of the attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the lack of any apparent exit plan set the stage for a prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences. Safe havens in the Mideast like Dubai have seen incoming fire; hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe; oil prices shot up; and U.S. allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.
The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the U.S. military said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American F-15E Strike Eagles while Iran was attacking with aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely and are in stable condition.
With no sign of the conflict abating anytime soon, Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared “to go far longer than that.”
He said U.S. forces were determined to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its navy, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that it cannot continue to support allied groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes.
“This was our last, best chance to strike — what we’re doing right now — and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” Trump said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
