On Monday, the Department of Defense named two US soldiers who lost their lives due to Iranian strikes in Jordan, and the following day, they identified another soldier presumed dead from the same incident, as well as a service member who was killed in Iraq.
1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, aged 25, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, aged 19, were casualties of the attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan that occurred on Friday.
Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, is thought to have died during the same Friday incident in Jordan, as per the Pentagon’s report. Previously, he had been marked as missing by US Central Command.
On Tuesday, the department reported another service member’s death during a controlled explosion of a downed Iranian drone in Iraq. Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton from Fayetteville, North Carolina, was killed on July 19.
Gonzales, who hailed from Carrollton, Texas, was reported dead on Friday, according to the Defense Department.
Feehan, who enlisted in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, but primarily resided in Georgia according to his father, passed away on Saturday.
The parents of Feehan expressed to USdaily their profound heartbreak and devastation, revealing that their son was planning to marry upon returning from his deployment.
“We want the nation and the world to understand that Tyler lived life fully and achieved more in his 25 years than many do in a lifetime,” stated Stephen and Shari Feehan.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran took responsibility for the assaults in Jordan in a statement released on Saturday. The Pentagon indicated that the soldiers who perished in Jordan were killed “during an enemy attack.” Several other American service members sustained injuries, including four who required medical evacuation to a hospital in Jordan, but have since been released, as reported by US Central Command over the weekend.
The Pentagon stated that the investigation into the attack would continue.
The fatalities, which were first reported on Saturday, represent the first American military casualties due to Iranian strikes since March.
Prior to the identification of Rampersad by the Pentagon, it was announced over the weekend that unidentified remains of a missing service member had been found in Jordan. Although these remains have not been definitively identified, the military suspects they belong to Rampersad.
An official dignified transfer for the four service members is scheduled for Wednesday, according to an administration source.
With these deaths, the total number of US service members who have died in the nearly five-month conflict now stands at 18, including the soldier presumed to have died in Jordan.
On March 1, six US Army Reserve soldiers lost their lives due to a direct strike from Iran on a makeshift operations center located at Shuaiba port in Kuwait. A few days later, an Army sergeant succumbed to injuries received during an attack in Saudi Arabia.
On March 12, six service members were killed when a US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq, although this incident was “not caused by hostile or friendly fire.”
A recent decrease in hostilities has transitioned into what has resembled an all-out conflict over the past week, with the US targeting Iranian infrastructure such as railways, roads, and tunnels while Iran has escalated attacks against a growing number of countries in the region.
Regardless of the strikes, officials expressed hope for a potential diplomatic resolution over the weekend. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Sunday that the US “remains open” to negotiations, and an Iranian representative indicated a similar willingness for discussions.
President Donald Trump remarked on Saturday that the deaths of the American service members were “a very sad thing.”
“We hate to see it happen,” he told NewsNation. “It’s in service to our country.”
USdaily’s Francesca Hoffman contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional information.
