WASHINGTON (TNND) — About 140 U.S. service members have been wounded in the Iran war, with eight “severely injured,” the Pentagon confirmed in an official statement on Tuesday.
“The vast majority of these injuries have been minor, and 108 service members have already returned to duty,” Spokesman Sean Parnell told The Associated Press.
The update in injuries comes after a barrage of retaliatory rocket and drone strikes from Iran killed seven soldiers in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Vice President JD Vance attended the dignified transfer of the seventh U.S. service member on Monday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky, died Sunday after being wounded during a March 1 attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, a Pentagon statement said.
Pennington was assigned to the 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command based at Fort Carson, Colorado.
The unit’s mission focused on “missile warning, GPS, and long-haul satellite communications,” according to their website.
The other six service members killed since the war began on Feb. 28 were killed when an Iranian drone hit an operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait.
President Donald Trump joined the grieving families on Saturday and said bearing witness to the transfer was “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.
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Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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