U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) responded Saturday to U.S. Central Command’s announcement that two American service members were killed and a third is missing after Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks in Jordan, writing on X that she and others are “praying for the families” and calling the losses “heartbreaking.”
Luna’s post, published to her official congressional account at 12:47 p.m. on July 18, 2026, read in full: “We are praying for the families. This is heartbreaking.” The post came hours after CENTCOM confirmed the latest American combat deaths in the ongoing war with Iran, a conflict that has now claimed at least 16 U.S. service members’ lives since fighting began earlier this year.
CENTCOM’s statement, issued Saturday from its Tampa headquarters, said the two service members were killed in action on July 17 as U.S. and partner forces defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks in Jordan. A third service member remains missing. “Four American service members were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals,” the command said. “They have since been discharged. Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty.” Out of respect for the families, CENTCOM said it would withhold additional information, including the identities of the fallen, until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified.
What Happened in Jordan
According to reporting on the strike, at least two Iranian ballistic missiles hit the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, a facility that hosts American troops and fighter jets. Video circulating on social media in the hours after the attack showed the impact of the missiles and heavy smoke rising over the base. CENTCOM did not specify the exact location within Jordan or provide further detail about the circumstances of the attack, and the identities of those killed had not been released as of Saturday afternoon.
The strike marked the first American combat deaths in the Iran war since March, when a service member died from injuries sustained during the conflict’s opening days. Military officials and news organizations covering the war noted that Saturday’s losses were the first American fatalities attributable directly to Iranian fire since that earlier period of the conflict, underscoring how the war, despite periods of relative quiet, has continued to produce U.S. casualties in the months since it began.
Luna’s Pattern of Response to the War’s Toll
Saturday’s post was not the first time Luna has used her platform to respond to American losses in the Iran war. In February, as Congress reacted to the opening strikes on Iran, Luna asked colleagues and the public to join her “in holding our brave service members and their families in prayer, as well as the innocent people of Iran and every other person involved right now,” adding that “the price of peace is a heavy burden.” That statement, made in the earliest days of the conflict, established a consistent theme in Luna’s public remarks: an emphasis on prayer and grief for those affected by the fighting, paired with continued engagement on the broader war debate playing out in Washington.
Luna, a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and a U.S. Air Force veteran, has also been an outspoken voice on the conduct of the war itself. In March, she publicly criticized Senate colleague Lindsey Graham after he discussed the possibility of additional American casualties in a potential ground operation targeting Iran’s Kharg Island. Luna wrote at the time that Graham was talking about troops “as if they are expendable cattle,” calling his comments “unacceptable and dark” and invoking the scale of American losses at Iwo Jima. She has separately said she would not support U.S. troops entering Iran on the ground “period,” even as reports indicated additional forces, including elements of the 82nd Airborne Division, were being positioned in the region.
The Broader Toll of the Conflict
CENTCOM’s Saturday announcement brings the U.S. military death toll in the Iran war to at least 16, according to reporting following the release, with hundreds of additional troops wounded since fighting began. The war has moved through several distinct phases since its outbreak, from the opening exchange of strikes between the U.S., Israel, and Iran to a fragile ceasefire that began fraying in late June, followed by a renewed and intensified campaign of American strikes against Iranian targets that has continued into July.
Iran, for its part, has continued to strike at American positions and allied nations across the region. Iranian officials have reported dozens of civilian deaths inside Iran from U.S. strikes over the past several weeks, while Iran has repeatedly closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping chokepoint, as part of its response to the American campaign. The reciprocal nature of the conflict, strikes met with strikes, has left military planners and lawmakers alike bracing for further American casualties as the war continues without a clear endpoint.
Administration and Congressional Reaction
President Trump has repeatedly acknowledged since the war’s early days that American deaths would likely continue. In a video address following the initial wave of U.S. combat operations, Trump said the “lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties,” a warning that has proven accurate as the death toll has climbed in the months since. Following an earlier round of losses, Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social that he and the country “pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen,” while adding that “sadly, there will likely be more, before it ends.”
Reaction on Capitol Hill to Saturday’s announcement, as with previous rounds of American casualties, has largely broken along the same lines that have defined the war debate since its start. Some lawmakers, including Luna, have continued to focus their public statements on grief and support for the families of the fallen while backing the administration’s broader posture in the region. Others, including members of the House and Senate Democratic leadership, have used each new announcement of casualties to renew calls for greater congressional oversight of the war’s objectives and its end state, arguing that the American public has not been given a clear accounting of how long the conflict is expected to continue or what victory would look like.
Where Things Stand
As of Saturday evening, CENTCOM had not yet released the identities of the two service members killed or provided an update on the search for the missing service member. Under the command’s standard protocol, that information is expected to follow within 24 hours of next-of-kin notification. The Pentagon has not indicated whether the Jordan strike will prompt any change in U.S. force posture at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base or at other American installations in the region that remain within range of Iranian missiles.
For now, Luna’s brief statement stands as one of the earliest official reactions from a sitting member of Congress to Saturday’s losses, a continuation of the same message she and other lawmakers have repeated after each announcement of American casualties since the war began: prayers for the families, and an acknowledgment of the human cost as the conflict with Iran continues into its fifth month with no clear resolution in sight.