(The Hill) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “there will be more casualties” in the ongoing U.S. operation against Iran, with seven American service members having died so far in the fighting.
“The president’s been right to say there will be casualties. Things like this don’t happen without casualties,” Hegseth said in an interview that aired on CBS News’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday.
“There will be more casualties, and no one is — I mean, especially our generation knows what it’s like to see Americans come home in caskets, it’s — but that doesn’t weaken us one bit, it stiffens our spine and our resolve to say this is a fight we will finish,” he added.
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Last week, the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran following months of tension between Tehran and Washington, which was heightened following President Donald Trump’s strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities last year.
Iran retaliated to the U.S. and Israeli strikes by attacking Israel and Gulf nations, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
On Sunday, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) announced that a seventh U.S. service member had died in the conflict with Iran. Centcom said on social media that the service member died as a result of “injuries received during the Iranian regime’s initial attacks across the Middle East” on March 1.
The service member had been “seriously wounded at the scene” of an attack from Iran in Saudi Arabia targeting American troops, per the command.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi on Sunday said Iran could possibly defend itself if a U.S. ground incursion happens.
“For the time being we are capable enough. We have very brave soldiers, who are waiting for any enemy who enters into our soil to fight with them, and to kill them and destroy them,” Araghchi said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Trump administration officials, including Trump himself, have not denied the possibility of sending ground troops into Iran.
“[It would] have to be [for] a very good reason. And I would say if we ever did that, they would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight at the ground level,” the president told reporters on Saturday.
