SerpApi.Org
Almost 100 US soldiers have been injured in Iranian air strikes over the past two weeks, the Pentagon has said.
Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, confirmed the injury toll, adding that 96 per cent of the soldiers had since returned to duty.
“They are determined to get back in the fight,” he told CBS. “The vast majority of injuries experienced were minor concussions.”
The revelation follows a report in the New York Times on Monday, which claimed that the Pentagon had been hiding the true extent of the casualties since the Iran conflict restarted on July 7.
Whistleblowers said a series of Iranian strikes had injured dozens of soldiers and damaged several helicopters, which the Pentagon had not disclosed. The Pentagon insisted the military had not withheld or misrepresented US casualties in the war.
“Claims of concealment are fabrications meant to further distress the American people in the wake of three service members killed in action,” Mr Parnell said.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Donald Trump said the US will be striking the Pickaxe Mountain, located near Iran’s heavily damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, “pretty soon.”
Pickaxe Mountain is a heavily fortified site that hosts two deeply buried tunnel complexes that experts assess as beyond the reach of the most powerful bunker buster bombs in the US arsenal. The site is linked to Iran’s nuclear program.
Tehran has increased its assault on US bases across the Middle East following the disintegration of the initial peace deal earlier this month.
Two American soldiers killed in an Iranian attack on the Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan on Friday were identified as 1st Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25, and PVT Isabella Gonzales, 19.
The missile struck prefabricated housing units where troops lived and slept, according to US officials.
US Central Command (Centcom) also said it was analysing human remains that belonged to a third soldier killed at the base.
Donald Trump vowed to retaliate, writing on Truth Social: “Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!”
The US military’s defence casualty analysis system listed 413 service members as wounded in action since the start of the war with Iran. However, that figure does not include any injuries from this month.
Overnight, the US launched its tenth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, aimed at degrading its “ability to continue attacking commercial vessels flowing through the Strait of Hormuz”.
The strikes targeted missile and drone launch sites and air defence systems, Centcom said.
In response, Tehran continued targeting US assets in countries throughout the Middle East. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had targeted infrastructure belonging to the US tech giant Amazon in Bahrain.
Meanwhile, the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre said another tanker had been hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman overnight.
The incident, reported eight nautical miles east of Limah in Oman, forced its crew to abandon the vessel and board a lifeboat.
The IRGC said on Tuesday that two oil tankers had caught fire in explosions as they attempted to transit the strait’s southern route.
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Despite the renewed assault on Iran, US officials have said Tehran is unlikely to feel a significant impact or soften its negotiating position.
According to the Washington Post, analysts at American spy agencies have also concluded that Tehran and Washington are stuck in an indefinite limbo between peace and war.
Another front has also opened in the Middle East after the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia.
A Houthi spokesman said the naval blockade, threatening the Bab el-Mandeb strait that leads to the Suez Canal, would begin immediately and was in response to a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in Houthi-controlled north-western Yemen.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump appeared to close the door on any immediate prospect of peace talks, saying the United States was “not interested” in discussions to end the war.
The US president is weighing an expanded military campaign and prolonged blockade against Iran to force its capitulation on nuclear programs and control over the Strait of Hormuz.
“The Iranians are desperate to meet with us, but until they’re ready to do significant things, we’re not interested in meeting with them,” the US president told reporters in the Oval Office during his bilateral meeting with Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president.
