The Pentagon said Monday approximately 200 U.S. service members have been wounded since the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran broke out.
The “vast majority” of these injuries have been “minor” and over 180 troops have returned to duty, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) spokesperson, U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, told The Hill in a statement.
The updated injury tally comes as the U.S. military has continued to strike Iranian drone storage facilities, missile launchers and military targets on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, departure point for about 90 percent of the country’s oil exports.
Iran has continued to retaliate by firing one-way attack drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, the U.S. outposts in the region and civilian targets in Gulf countries.
Last Tuesday, the Pentagon said that around 140 U.S. service members had been injured since the conflict broke out and that 108 had returned to duty. Pentagon top spokesperson Sean Parnell said at the time that eight service members were severely injured.
Six U.S. service members died in a recent crash of a KC-135 refueling aircraft over western Iraq, raising the death toll to 13.
Since the operation began on Feb. 28, the U.S. military has struck over 7,000 targets inside Iran and damaged or sunk more than 100 Iranian vessels, Centcom said in an update on Monday. The U.S. military said it has employed multiple nuclear-powered submarines in the war.
Reprinted from The Guardian
