Trump claims US hasn't 'lost a soldier in five months' despite multiple reported deaths in Iran war

Detailed summary

Trump defended the US campaign against Iran by saying no American soldiers had died in five months, even though several death have been reported since July.

US President Donald Trump said no American service members had been killed in the Iran war over the past five months, despite Pentagon figures showing that 23 US military personnel have died in the Middle East during the conflict.

Trump made the remarks in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that aired on Thursday. Defending the US military campaign against Iran, he said: “Nobody’s been killed in the last five months.”

“We haven’t lost a soldier in five months, and we control the Gulf,” Trump said.

However, figures reported by The Washington Post show that the Pentagon has recorded 23 American service member deaths in the Middle East during the war. Of these, 11 were attributed to enemy fire, while 12 were classified as non-hostile deaths.

Also Read: Trump blames Democrats for $3 trillion US stock market loss after 2026 midterms

The Pentagon's casualty figures include several deaths reported in July, within the five-month period Trump referred to in his interview.

According to The Washington Post's report, three US soldiers were killed in an enemy attack on an air base in Jordan. Another service member died during a controlled drone detonation at an air base in Iraq.

A Navy captain also died during an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea.

According to Washington Post report published on October 29, 865 US troops had been wounded by enemy fire since the war began.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Hindustan Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.