The first American soldiers killed in the fight with Iran are identified
The first American soldiers lost in the war with Iran have been named by the US military.
An "unmanned aircraft system" struck a command center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, on Sunday after eluding air defenses, killing six soldiers.
After one person died from injuries and two additional bodies were discovered among the debris, officials confirmed on Monday that the number of soldiers killed in the incident had doubled from the initial three reported by US Central Command.
Since the US military began a new conflict with Iran alongside Israel, these six are the sole known deaths.
The US military identified four of the dead on Tuesday. They were all US Army Reserve soldiers: Capt. Cody Khork, 35; Sgt. Noah Tietjens, 42; Sgt. Nicole Amor, 39; and Sgt. Declan Coady, 20.
Khork, a resident of Florida, had served in Poland, Saudi Arabia, and Guantanamo Bay.
Amor, a Minnesotan, has served in Iraq and Kuwait. Tietjens, a resident of Nebraska, had already served in Kuwait twice. They were all decorated members of the armed forces.
According to the US military, Coady received a posthumous promotion from specialist. Only three years ago, the native of Iowa joined the Army Reserve.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that a "strong weapon" had hit a "tactical operations center that was fortified" during a briefing on Monday.
The service members were operating in an improvised office area, according to three US military sources who had firsthand knowledge of Iran's attack and spoke to CBS, the BBC's US partner.
They told CBS News that a trailer was being used as an office and that it was protected by 12-foot (3.7-meter) steel-reinforced concrete barricades, raising concerns about whether the building had been sufficiently secured.
Over 13,000 US soldiers are based in Kuwait, a country in the Gulf with whom the US has a long-standing defense partnership.
Iran has launched missiles against US-allied Gulf nations in retaliation for attacks on it. Strikes have also occurred in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar.
The United States announced that three fighter planes were shot down in Kuwait on Monday during what it called a "friendly fire" incident.
The jets were seen in the video spiraling to the ground. All of the pilots involved were able to escape and made it out alive.
Without offering any proof, Iranian state media asserted that the Iranian military had shot down the aircraft.
