President Donald Trump’s war on Iran continues to put more Americans in harm’s way.
More than 200 Americans across seven countries have been wounded or injured as a result of the U.S.-Israeli joint campaign against Iran, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, the U.S. Central Command chief spokesperson, told the outlet that the troops had been wounded in Kuwait, Iraq, Israel, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Hawkins said that most were hurt during the opening days of the conflict and that over 180 have returned to duty.
Last week, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed that about 140 Americans had been injured, and though most injuries were minor, eight were seriously hurt.
Hawkins added that the number of troops who were seriously injured had risen to 10, saying that military officials had recharacterized the injuries of two personnel who had been wounded near the beginning of the fighting.
Since the military action—dubbed “Operation Epic Fury” by the Defense Department—began on Feb. 28, a total of 13 American service members have died as a result of the conflict.
On March 1, six American military personnel died when an Iranian drone struck a mobile operations center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. Another U.S. soldier died during an attack at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
On Thursday, six more troops were killed when a KC-135 Stratotanker refueling plane crashed in Iraq. Military officials said the aircraft had been involved in an accident with another aircraft, though the other plane landed safely in Israel.
The latest figures from Iran’s Health Ministry estimate that over 1,400 people have been killed and over 18,000 injured by U.S. and Israeli attacks in Iran since Feb. 28, according to Al Jazeera.
Trump, 79, has desperately tried to rally support from allies across the globe, but to little effect.
Longtime allied nations like the United Kingdom and Australia have outright refused to send warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed on March 2. Germany, Spain, and Japan have also said that they have no plans to send ships to support Trump’s request.
Shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the only sea passage that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has come to a near halt in the wake of Iran’s closure. Daily traffic has slowed to a trickle from its typical 60-ship average, with only three ships per day traveling through the crucial trade corridor, according to hormuzstraitmonitor.com.
As a result, Americans have felt the war at home at the pump, with the national average price for a gallon of gas now around $3.70, up more than 22 percent from last month’s $2.94 average.
The exact timeline for when the U.S. involvement in the Middle East will cease is unclear, though Trump said it will end “when I feel it in my bones.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment.
