Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said he fears the Trump administration lacks a strategy to end the war with Iran, after three American service members were killed over the weekend in back-to-back attacks in Jordan and Iraq.
“My heart breaks for the families of the three American service members killed by Iran this weekend, and I am praying for the full recovery of those injured during the strikes,” Durbin wrote on X. “This latest escalation makes it even more important that the war with Iran is brought to a peaceful conclusion, but I fear the Trump Administration has no clear plan on how to achieve that objective.”
Durbin, the Senate Democratic Whip and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was responding to a CBS News post reporting that back-to-back Iranian attacks on a U.S. base appeared to have evaded defenses over the weekend.
The U.S. military has identified two of the three fallen service members as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, both of whom were killed in an Iranian missile and drone attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. A third service member remains listed as missing, with unidentified remains found at the site still undergoing an identification process, while a separate service member was killed in northern Iraq during what CENTCOM described as a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the Jordan attack in remarks to reporters before departing for the ASEAN summit in Manila. “We shot down almost all the missiles,” Rubio said, according to an official State Department transcript. “One leaked through, hit the wrong place, and tragically, and it’s heartbreaking.” Of the Iraq incident, Rubio said the service members “were decommissioning ammunition and an accident happened in that process and they were harmed.”
President Trump said on Truth Social that he had directed military leadership to ensure Iran pays for the deaths. “Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over,” Trump wrote, adding that the directive had been passed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Daniel Caine and “every Leader in the Military.”
Hegseth wrote on X that “their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve,” and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that Trump would attend a dignified transfer of the fallen service members Tuesday evening at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, writing that “the President and the entire White House are praying for their families.”
Beyond the three deaths, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed to CBS News that nearly 100 U.S. service members have been injured in multiple Iranian strikes on Middle East bases since July 7, with 96 percent having returned to duty. “They are determined to get back in the fight,” Parnell said. “The vast majority of injuries experienced were minor concussions.”
U.S. Central Command said Monday it had launched a tenth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, stating on X that the strikes are “designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.” CENTCOM separately said it has disabled one commercial vessel and redirected seven others as part of its ongoing naval blockade of Iranian ports.
The deaths bring the total number of U.S. service members killed since the war with Iran began Feb. 28 to 17, following six killed in an Iranian attack on a base in Kuwait in March, six killed when a refueling plane crashed in Iraq that same month, one killed in a strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, and one Navy pilot who died when his helicopter made an emergency landing at sea last month.
The Jordan attack was the second direct hit on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in two days, part of four Iranian attacks on U.S. forces in the country over five days, raising questions about whether missile defense systems failed to intercept or detect the incoming fire.
Durbin’s comments add to a running dispute in Congress over presidential war powers. The Senate previously passed a concurrent resolution directing Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran by a vote of 50-48 in June, though the measure was nonbinding, and Sen. Adam Schiff has since filed a new War Powers Resolution following the collapse of the ceasefire.
Neither the White House nor CENTCOM has issued a direct public response to Durbin’s statement.