Three US Military Personnel Killed in Iran Attack; Trump Vows Retaliation

US President Donald Trump vowed retaliation for the first American deaths in his conflict with Iran. Trump stated he had been planning this war for approximately four weeks.

“I again urge Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, military and police to lay down their weapons and accept full immunity or face certain death,” Trump said in a video address from his residence in Florida, reported by AFP on Monday (2 February 2026).

“It will be certain death. It will not be pleasant,” Trump added.

Iran’s forces had retaliated after Trump’s strike killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israel attack. Iranian forces responded with missile and drone strikes targeting US and Israeli bases throughout the Middle East, resulting in deaths in Israel and the United Arab Emirates, with explosions devastating luxury economic centres in the Persian Gulf.

The Pentagon stated that three US military personnel were killed in the operation and five others sustained serious injuries in an operation designated “Epic Fury.”

“Unfortunately, there will likely be more casualties before this operation ends,” Trump said.

“But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most devastating blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, essentially, civilisation,” he added.

Casualties represent a sensitive political issue in the United States, and Trump, who campaigned criticising foreign interventions, has provided limited public explanation for the war.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, stated the deaths resulted from “reckless decision-making” and that no threat “justifies this type of preemptive military strike.”

Meanwhile, whilst much of the Iranian diaspora celebrated Khamenei’s death, anger was evident in neighbouring Pakistan, where officials reported 17 deaths and protesters attempted to storm the US consulate in Karachi.