The Pentagon updated its official Iran war casualty count to 14 on Monday after the U.S. Navy identified a helicopter pilot lost in the Arabian Sea earlier this month.
Cmdr. Gabriel Edwards, commanding officer of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 5, was lost on July 1 when an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter made an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea. Three other crew members were recovered. The Navy suspended search-and-rescue operations on July 5 after more than 100 hours of searching and coverage of over 14,000 square miles.
The incident remains under investigation.
More than 400 service members have been wounded since the Iran war began.
The 14 deaths break down across several incidents. Six soldiers were killed in an Iranian drone strike on a U.S. command center in Kuwait. One service member died from injuries sustained in a strike in Saudi Arabia. Six others were killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq.
The latest casualty update comes as hostilities with Iran escalated again last week. Iran targeted commercial vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. responded with multiple strike packages. The U.S. military launched another barrage of strikes Monday, hitting targets in Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas, according to U.S. Central Command.
The Strait of Hormuz is a critical chokepoint for global oil shipping. President Trump has proposed that vessels using the waterway pay a 20 percent toll to the U.S. for providing safe passage. “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” he wrote. “Those Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future.”
