Around 200 US troops have now been wounded in the ongoing conflict with Iran, the US military confirmed on Monday, as the hostilities entered their third week.
The US military’s Central Command clarified that most injuries were minor, with 180 personnel already back on active duty. However, ten of the reported injuries are considered serious. These casualties were sustained across multiple locations in the region, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Israel.
The rising injury toll comes after 13 US service members have been killed since Iran initiated strikes against American military bases following the outbreak of the conflict on 28 February. Beyond military installations, Iranian attacks have also targeted diplomatic missions, hotels, airports, and critical energy infrastructure within Arab Gulf states.
The United States, meanwhile, has carried out strikes against more than 7,000 targets in Iran.
About a dozen MQ-9 drones have been destroyed in the war, said a U.S. official on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle can loiter at altitudes of around 50,000 feet for more than 27 hours, gathering intelligence with sophisticated cameras, sensors and radars.
The Reaper, which entered service with the U.S. Air Force 16 years ago, can be equipped with weapons such as air-to-ground missiles.
On Monday it was reported President Trump was warned that attacking Iran could trigger retaliation against U.S. Gulf allies despite his claims that Tehran’s reaction came as a surprise.
Pre-war intelligence assessments did not say that Iran’s response was “a guarantee, but it certainly was on the list of potential outcomes,” said one source, who like the other two requested anonymity to discuss the issue.
The president twice on Monday said that Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait were a surprise, the first time at a Kennedy Center board meeting in the White House.
“They (Iran) weren’t supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East,” he said. “Nobody expected that. We were shocked.”
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