U.S. and Israeli forces are continuing to pound Iran, now four days into the conflict, while they are both simultaneously trying to defend themselves against retaliatory attack.
Here are some notable figures as the war entered its fourth day of fighting:
Nearly 2,000
U.S. forces have hit nearly 2,000 targets in Iran during the first four days of the war, Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said in a prerecorded video released on social media Tuesday night.
“Now we’re less than 100 hours into this operation, and we’ve already struck nearly 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions,” he said.
The tally does not factor in Israel’s military.
6
Six American service members were killed in Kuwait at the Port of Shuaiba in a drone attack on Sunday. They are the first American fatalities of the war.
The Pentagon revealed the identities of four of them on Tuesday: Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa.
Multiple U.S. officials have warned that the United States could have more fatalities before the war concludes.
“We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses,” Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Monday. “But, as the secretary said, this is major combat operations.”
2,500
Iran has fired more than 2,000 drones and 500 ballistic missiles in response at Israel and several other nearby countries after the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes on Saturday.
“In retaliation, the Iranian regime has launched over 500 ballistic missiles and over 2000 drones,” Cooper said. “To be clear, Iran is indiscriminately targeting civilians as they launch these missiles and drones.”
Iran has targeted the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia in addition to Israel. The U.S. military has intercepted a significant number of Iran’s drones and missiles, but not all of them.
“Our integrated air and missile defense network is performing exactly as it’s intended. U.S. Patriot and THAAD batteries along with ballistic missile defense-capable Navy destroyers continue to coordinate and execute intercepts with precision and consistency,” Caine said. “Collectively, these systems have intercepted hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting U.S. forces, our partners, and regional stability.”
The Qatari Ministry of Defense said an Iranian ballistic missile struck the U.S.’s Al-Udeid air base, but there were no reported casualties. It’s the largest American base in the region. Qatar’s army was able to intercept one Iranian ballistic missile fired at the time, but the other got through and hit the base.
Two suspected Iranian drones hit the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, causing a small fire late Monday night.
14
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing “serious safety risks,” urged all Americans to leave 14 countries in the region. Those countries are Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UAE, and Yemen.
But multiple commercial airports are closed amid the regional conflict, making evacuating much more complicated.
Assistant Secretary Dylan Johnson said on Tuesday afternoon that they have been in “direct contact with nearly 3,000 Americans abroad.”
The U.S. embassies in Kuwait, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia have also closed amid the raging conflict.
HOW THE IRAN CONFLICT WAS LAUNCHED: ‘OPERATION EPIC FURY IS APPROVED. NO ABORTS. GOOD LUCK’
Trump was asked in the Oval Office on Tuesday why there wasn’t an evacuation plan ahead of the opening strikes, to which he responded that Operation Epic Fury was rolled out without sufficient time for such preparation.
“It happened all very quickly,” he said. “We thought — I thought, maybe more so than most, I could ask Marco — but I thought that we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked. They were getting ready to attack Israel, they were getting ready to attack others — you’re seeing that right now.”
