President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that the United States had suffered losses in the war with Iran but framed them as acceptable costs of a necessary campaign, calling Iranian leaders “deranged scumbags” and pledging that the strikes would intensify rather than slow down. Six American service members died when a tanker aircraft used for mid-air refuelling crashed in Iraq, bringing the total US death count to 13. Eight other American personnel have suffered severe injuries in the conflict. Trump’s response was to promise harder strikes, not to reconsider.
France also lost a soldier in Iraq on Friday, killed by a drone strike carried out by a pro-Iranian militia group. The deaths of Western service members in Iraq underscored how the war had expanded far beyond the original Israel-Iran confrontation to engulf multiple countries and involve multiple national armies. Iraq has become a secondary theater of conflict, with Iran’s allied militia groups operating there and attacking both American and allied forces.
US and Israeli forces have struck more than 15,000 combined enemy targets since the start of the war. Israel alone reported over 200 individual strikes in the most recent 24 hours. Trump late Friday announced that US Central Command had completely obliterated every military facility on Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil terminal, in what he described as one of the most powerful bombing raids in Middle Eastern history. He warned that the island’s oil infrastructure would be struck next if Iran continued its Strait of Hormuz blockade.
The conflict’s humanitarian toll was visible across the entire region. Iran has reported over 1,300 deaths. Lebanon has counted over 600 killed and 800,000 displaced. Israel reports 12 deaths. Hezbollah injured about 60 Israelis in rocket salvoes at northern Israel. Saudi Arabia intercepted close to 50 Iranian drones. Qatar issued Doha evacuation orders before a missile interception. Two died in Oman in drone crashes. Dubai’s financial district sustained building damage from intercepted debris.
Tehran residents described a city of constant bombardment, power cuts, rubble, and desperate people unable to flee due to fuel shortages. A retired professor begged the world to intervene. A shopkeeper counted six explosions in one hour. Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei was described by US officials as wounded and hiding underground after being disfigured in the strikes. European governments sought diplomatic back-channels with Tehran for Strait of Hormuz safe passage. Trump’s threats about Iran’s oil infrastructure kept global energy markets in a state of high anxiety.