Two US troops killed in Jordan as Iran war death toll reaches 16

Bridgewater,UPDATED: Jul 19, 2026 03:30 IST

The US military said on Saturday that two more service members were killed in the war with Iran, taking the total number of American deaths in the conflict to 16. The latest deaths took place in Jordan while US forces were defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks, and the military said one US service member is "currently" missing after the attack.

The deaths underline that the conflict has continued to pose lethal risks even without large numbers of American troops on the ground, as fighting has involved drones, missiles and aircraft. US forces are deployed across the Middle East, making other countries targets of Iran after peace talks broke down and the fighting escalated. President Donald Trump has said the war is necessary to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but as of Saturday afternoon he had not issued a statement on the latest deaths, with the White House instead sending the statement released by US Central Command.

The first American fatalities came soon after the war began on February 28, when an Iranian drone strike at a civilian port in Kuwait killed six US soldiers. The soldiers were part of a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa and were working at a shipping container-style building that had no defences.

A seventh soldier died more than a week after being wounded in an Iranian attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on March 1.

Later in March, six service members were killed when a KC-135 refuelling aircraft supporting US military operations against Iran crashed in Iraq. According to US Central Command, the aircraft was in "friendly" airspace when an unspecified incident involving another aircraft took place.

On Monday, the US military said a Navy pilot died in a helicopter crash in the Arabian Sea. The Navy had initially described the July 1 crash as an emergency landing and said there was "no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action". The other three sailors on board were rescued.

In its statement on Saturday, US Central Command said it was withholding further details, including the names of the two service members killed in Jordan, until 24 hours after their families had been notified.

The deaths in the war have not been limited to Americans. Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in US strikes in the past three weeks, including eight people killed in a strike on a bridge on Friday. People working on ships, along with foreign workers and others in Gulf countries, Israel and Lebanon, have also died in the conflict.

With the latest deaths in Jordan, the toll among US forces in the war has risen to 16, even as the wider conflict has continued to hit military personnel and civilians across the region.

With PTI Inputs

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