US Reports 3 Soldiers Killed, 5 Wounded... Vows Continued Strikes [US Iran Airstrikes]

Only 27% Support U.S. Airstrike on Iran

The first American casualties have occurred in the course of the U.S. military's large-scale attack on Iran, codenamed 'Epic Fury,' and Iran's subsequent counterattack.

On March 2, the United States Central Command announced on X (formerly known as Twitter) that as of 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on March 1, three U.S. soldiers had been killed and five seriously wounded.

This is the first time since the launch of the Trump administration's second term that the U.S. military has announced deaths during overseas military operations, including the airstrike on Iranian nuclear facilities conducted by U.S. forces in June of last year and the operation to extradite Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January this year. Even though U.S. ground troops were not deployed to Iran in this latest round of massive Iranian retaliation, it is believed that some personnel stationed in the Middle East were killed.

President Trump and his core support base, known as MAGA (Make America Great Again), share "restraint in U.S. overseas military intervention" as one of their core values.

During his inauguration in January of last year, President Trump stated, "We will be judged not only by the battles we have won, but by the wars we have ended, and perhaps most importantly, by the wars we never started." This remark was widely interpreted as reflecting the perception that past, unnecessary, or excessive U.S. military interventions had cost the lives of America's youth, and an intention not to repeat those mistakes.

For this reason, the recent American casualties are expected to be a burden for President Trump. According to a poll released on March 1 by Reuters and polling agency Ipsos, only 27% of respondents said they supported the previous day's U.S. airstrike on Iran, while 43% were opposed and 29% were undecided.

In this context, President Trump emphasized that the deaths of U.S. soldiers would not affect the intensity of military operations against Iran.

In his second video message since the start of the attack on Iran, President Trump addressed the deaths of the three U.S. soldiers, saying, "Unfortunately, before this is over, there will be more sacrifices," and added, "There will be more sacrifices, but we will do everything possible to prevent them." He went on to say, "America will avenge their deaths and deliver the harshest blow to the terrorists who have essentially waged war against civilization."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.