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The U.S. military said Sunday it had recovered unidentified remains at a Jordanian air base where a service member went missing following a deadly Iranian strike two days prior, as a separate fatality in northern Iraq pushed the American death toll in the ongoing conflict with Iran to at least 17.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Sunday that military personnel had located the remains at the site of the July 17 Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, which had already claimed the lives of two American service members and left a third unaccounted for.
"An examination process to verify the remains is ongoing," CENTCOM said, without disclosing further details pending family notifications.
In a separate development, CENTCOM disclosed that a service member in northern Iraq was killed July 18 during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance recovered from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone.
A second service member sustained minor injuries in that incident and remains under medical care.
The deaths are the first American military fatalities resulting from Iranian fire since March, according to CNN, and come as U.S. forces have been conducting what CENTCOM described as their eighth consecutive night of strikes against Iranian military targets, including Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities, missile and drone storage sites, and maritime assets.
The July 17 attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a key installation used by Jordanian and U.S. coalition forces, involved at least two Iranian ballistic missiles, according to Axios.
Video footage circulating on social media showed the missiles impacting the base and heavy smoke rising from the installation.
Four additional U.S. service members were medically evacuated to hospitals in Jordan following the attack and have since been discharged.
Others who were evaluated for minor injuries returned to duty.
The strikes on Jordan are part of a broader Iranian retaliatory campaign that has unfolded since the United States and Israel launched coordinated military operations against Iran on February 28, under the U.S. code name Operation Epic Fury.
In the weeks and months since, Iranian forces have carried out attacks across multiple countries hosting U.S. military assets, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq.
The total number of American service members killed in the conflict has now reached at least 17, with more than 430 wounded since hostilities began, according to NPR.
On Sunday, air raid sirens sounded across Amman as Iran launched additional missiles at Jordan; the Jordanian military said it intercepted three and a fourth fell in a remote area, with no casualties reported.
President Donald Trump, speaking to NewsNation Sunday, called the deaths of the service members in Jordan "a very sad thing" but said they died "in service to our country," while reaffirming his administration's stated objective of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
CENTCOM said it is withholding the identities of all fallen and missing personnel "out of respect for the families during the notification process." The command has not specified the branches of service or units to which the deceased belonged.
House Speaker Mike Johnson offered his condolences Saturday, calling on the nation to pray for the families of the fallen and expressing hope for "the swift recovery of those injured, and for the safe return of the missing service member," in a statement posted to social media before Sunday's update on the Jordan remains.
As the conflict enters its fifth month, analysts and defense officials continue to assess the pace of Iranian retaliatory operations, which shifted after early strikes degraded Iran's ballistic missile launch capacity but left its drone-based attrition capabilities largely intact.
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