Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine called on the Trump administration to end the war with Iran after U.S. Central Command confirmed that two American service members were killed in an Iranian missile and drone attack on a base in Jordan, with a third listed as missing.
“Heartbreaking news out of Jordan,” Pingree wrote on X. “Two more American service members have lost their lives, and another remains missing. My thoughts are with their families and loved ones, and with every American serving in harm’s way. They deserve better than a reckless war with no clear plan, no exit strategy, and no end in sight. This Administration must stop putting more American lives at risk and end this war.”
Pingree, a Democrat who sits on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, was responding to a statement CENTCOM posted a day earlier. “On July 17, two U.S. service members in Jordan were killed in action as U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and partner forces defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks,” CENTCOM said. “Additionally, one service member is currently missing. Four American service members were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals. They have since been discharged.”
The attack struck Muwaffaq Salti Air Base near Azraq, Jordan, which hosts American troops and fighter jets. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the strike, saying it used both missiles and drones and claiming to have destroyed several aircraft at the base.
By Sunday the toll from the attack had risen. CENTCOM announced it had located unidentified remains at the site of the attack while searching for the missing service member, and an examination to confirm the identity was underway.
Separately, CENTCOM said a U.S. service member in northern Iraq was killed in action on July 18 during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one way attack drone, and that a second service member was wounded and continues to receive medical treatment for a minor injury.
The combined deaths bring the number of U.S. service members killed since the war with Iran began on Feb. 28 to 17, according to Pentagon figures. Roughly 50,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed across the Middle East.
President Donald Trump addressed the deaths Sunday as he returned to Washington from the World Cup final. “We feel very badly, but you know those great people, those great patriots out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters, adding that Iran had been “very, very badly damaged” and had “lost everything almost militarily.”
The Jordan strike came amid a broader collapse of the ceasefire that had paused the war for roughly a month. Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a 14 point memorandum of understanding on June 17, with Trump inking the document during a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles. The agreement formalized a 60 day ceasefire, ended the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping on a toll free basis.
The truce began fraying within weeks over unresolved disputes about Iran’s nuclear program and the policing of the strait. By early July, Trump had declared the ceasefire “over” during a NATO summit in Ankara, and the U.S. resumed large scale strikes, including a reinstated blockade and a proposed toll on cargo moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that oil traffic through the strait had recovered to about two-thirds of pre-conflict levels, or roughly 14 million barrels a day, telling ABC News that the seven-day trailing average showed just under seven million barrels flowing through the waterway plus a similar volume through bypass pipelines. U.S. forces conducted a ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran on Sunday, according to CENTCOM.
Sen. Adam Schiff of California filed a new War Powers Resolution after the ceasefire’s collapse, co-sponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Andy Kim of New Jersey, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. “We were promised the war would be over for months,” Schiff said in a statement. “And now in a matter of days we’ve gone from a bad U.S.-Iran deal to more strikes, another blockade, and added turmoil that will only drive prices higher. Any assertion by the Trump administration that he gets 60 more days to act without Congress has no foundation in law.”
It is not the first time Congress has tried to force an end to the conflict. The Senate has voted on war powers resolutions related to the Iran war at least 11 times, and both chambers previously passed a concurrent resolution directing Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from hostilities, with the Senate approving it 50-48 in June and four Republicans joining Democrats in favor. Trump has opposed each effort, and Republican leadership has not allowed a binding resolution to reach his desk.
Pingree has represented Maine’s 1st Congressional District since 2009 and also sits on the House Agriculture Committee and House Appropriations Committee, where she chairs the Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment and the Subcommittee on Agriculture in addition to her Military Construction and Veterans Affairs role.
CENTCOM has said it will withhold the identities of the fallen service members until 24 hours after their next of kin are notified. The White House has not issued a separate public statement responding to Pingree’s post.