ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran will immeasurably pay over every killing of US troops. His statement came hours after the Department of War (DoW) released the names of two active-duty soldiers killed over the weekend following an Iranian missile strike on an airbase in Jordan.
“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military,” he added.
DoW had earlier identified the slain soldiers as “1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25” and “Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19” killed “in action” at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. “The incident is under investigation,” it noted.
A US army handout revealed the image of Gonzales, with the image of Feehan yet to be released.
The soldiers were killed amid renewed confrontations between the US and Iran that have resumed uninterrupted for the past nine days, despite earlier efforts to end their nearly five months-long hostilities that started in late February, when the US and Israel launched a massive aerial campaign against Iran.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) had announced the death of the two soldiers on Sunday, but said it will withhold the identification “out of respect for the families during the notification process.”
CENTCOM also pointed to a missing soldier suspected of being killed in the attack. “After a thorough search, U.S. military personnel found unidentified remains at the location earlier today. An examination process to verify the remains is ongoing,” it added.
Meanwhile, CENTCOM announced the death of another member of the US military in the Kurdistan Region on Saturday during a “controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone.”
Of note, Iran and its aligned groups in Iraq have struck the Kurdistan Region with 918 drones since February 28. The attacks on the Region have so far killed 30 people and injured 148 others, based on Rudaw’s record.
Since the beginning of the war, 17 US servicemen have been killed and at least 420 wounded.
