WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Defense has released the names of two soldiers who lost their lives last week during fighting connected to the ongoing war with Iran.
Officials confirmed that 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, from Carrollton, Texas, were killed in Jordan, where they were stationed in support of a U.S. mission targeting the Islamic State group. The exact circumstances of their deaths have not been disclosed.
U.S. Central Command announced on Saturday that the two service members died while defending against a combined Iranian ballistic missile and drone assault in Jordan.
With these latest deaths, the total number of American military fatalities in the war with Iran now stands at 17.
The losses underscore a difficult reality: American troops face deadly risks across the broader Middle East even without being physically present inside Iran. U.S. forces are spread throughout the region, making host nations potential targets as the conflict has intensified following the collapse of peace negotiations.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has stated that the war is essential to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
The fighting began on Feb. 28, and shortly thereafter, an Iranian drone strike at a civilian port in Kuwait claimed the lives of six American soldiers. Those soldiers belonged to a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa and were working inside a shipping container-style structure that lacked any defensive capabilities.
A seventh soldier succumbed to wounds sustained during an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on March 1, dying more than a week after being injured.
Later in March, six more service members perished when a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting U.S. military operations crashed in Iraq. U.S. Central Command noted the plane was in “friendly” airspace when an unspecified incident involving another aircraft occurred.
On Monday, the military also announced that a Navy pilot died following a helicopter crash in the Arabian Sea. The Navy had initially described the July 1 incident as an emergency landing and stated there was “no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action.” Three other sailors aboard the helicopter were rescued safely.
The most recent U.S. military death occurred Saturday in northern Iraq, where a service member was killed during a “controlled detonation” of unexploded ordnance recovered from a downed Iranian drone, according to U.S. Central Command. A second service member suffered a minor injury and is receiving medical treatment.
Military officials said they are withholding further details until 24 hours after the affected families have been notified.
American forces are not the only ones suffering losses. Iranian authorities report that at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in U.S. strikes over the past three weeks, including eight people killed in a strike on a bridge this past Friday.
The conflict has also taken the lives of civilian maritime workers, foreign workers, and others in Gulf nations, Israel, and Lebanon.
