3 U.S. troops killed in Iran war as Trump says operation is “ahead of schedule”

President Trump spoke of the three U.S. service members killed during the military operation in Iran, calling them “great people,” and he also said he expects “it could happen again” during the offensive.

“They’re great people,” Mr. Trump told The Daily Mail Sunday. “And, you know, we expect that to happen, unfortunately. Could happen continuous — it could happen again.” The president also said the three had “outstanding records.”

The three service members, who have not yet been identified, are the first casualties of Mr. Trump’s second term. No information has been released regarding the circumstances of their deaths. The military operation removing Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela in January resulted in injuries but no deaths.

The president said he would “maybe” travel to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for the dignified transfer of the three service members and would meet with their families “at the appropriate time.”

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who had been a key mediator in the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks up until late last week, said the “door to diplomacy remains” open as U.S. and Israeli strikes continue in Iran.

“I want to be very clear – the door to diplomacy remains open. Talks in Geneva made genuine progress towards an unprecedented agreement between Iran and the United States and although the hope was to avoid war, war should not mean that the hope of peace is extinguished,” Albusaidi wrote Sunday in a post on X. “I still believe in the power of diplomacy to resolve this conflict. The sooner talks are resumed the better it is for everyone.”

Albusaidi had told CBS News on Friday that the U.S. and Iran had made “substantial progress” toward a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program, telling “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan that a “peace deal is within our reach.”

On Saturday, Albusaidi said he was “dismayed” by the attacks on Iran and urged the U.S. to “not get sucked in further.”

“This is not your war,” he said.

President Trump told The Daily Mail on Sunday that his administration estimates the Iran operation will “take four weeks or less.” 

“It’s always been a four-week process. We figured it will be four weeks or so,” the president said in a phone interview. “It’s always been about a four-week process so — as strong as it is, it’s a big country — it’ll take four weeks — or less.” 

He said he hasn’t been surprised by what’s happened in the operation so far.

“I think it’s going as per planned. You know, other that we took out their entire leadership — far, far more than what we thought. Looks like 48,” he said, reiterating a figure he’d given to Fox News in a separate interview. 

Mr. Trump said earlier that he planned to talk with the Iranians, telling The Atlantic Sunday, “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.” 

He could not tell the Daily Mail whether those talks would be taking place soon.

“I don’t know,” he told the Daily Mail. “They want to, they want to talk, but I said you should have talked last week not this week.”

The Philippine Embassy in Israel confirmed the death of a Filipino national in a missile attack that hit Tel Aviv on Saturday.

The victim, identified as Mary Ann V. de Vera, 32, was a caregiver from Basista, in the Pangasinan province, and had been working in Israel since 2019. Her identity was confirmed through biometric records at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, where her husband, who also works in Israel, positively identified her remains, the embassy said in a statement. 

Ambassador Aileen Mendiola conveyed condolences to de Vera’s family and assured them of the Philippine government’s full assistance, the embassy said.

“The Embassy joins the entire Filipino community in the Holy Land in praying for the repose of her soul and for comfort and strength for her family during this time of grief,” its statement read.

A senior White House official says that the president will “eventually” talk with Iranian officials, but the strikes will continue for now.

“President Trump said new potential leadership in Iran has indicated they want to talk and eventually he will talk,” the official said. “For now, Operation Epic Fury continues unabated.”

Mr. Trump told The Atlantic earlier in the day that “they want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.”

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut lambasted the Trump administration for the ongoing strikes, saying that “nobody in this country is asking for war with Iran.”

“This president is intentionally tanking our economy, he’s the most corrupt president in the history of our nation, and Americans want him to focus on the crises here at home,” Murphy said on “Face the Nation.” “Instead, he is busy getting us involved in quagmires overseas that already are becoming deadly to American soldiers.”

Murphy called the move in Iran a “disaster.” He said that Congress has the power to declare war, and the president is obligated to ask lawmakers for an authorization of military force. 

“He wouldn’t get that authorization if he asked for it,” Murphy said. “Congress wouldn’t vote to give him the permission to do it, but he’s obligated to come to Congress.”

The House and Senate are set to take votes this week on war powers resolutions that would block the president from using further military force against Iran without support from lawmakers. But the votes will be largely symbolic even if the resolutions are approved, since they are unlikely to attract the two-thirds majorities needed to override a veto.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the president has spoken to the leaders of Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on Sunday:

Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie, a former commander of U.S. Central Command, outlined what to expect over the coming days on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

“The American people should be prepared for several more days of exchanges of long-range rockets,”
McKenzie said.

McKenzie said “the essential calculus” over the next 72 to 96 hours is whether the U.S. can reduce Iran’s ability to fire volleys of missiles at U.S. bases and allies’ cities in the region.

“That’s going to be a key thing to watch,” he said. 

McKenzie said “CENTCOM has planned for this for years” and he noted that “we’re probably going to take more casualties.”


“I hope we can certainly minimize those, and I know that our commanders in the region are doing everything they can to keep those numbers down,” he added. 
 

On a possible end-game, McKenzie said while there is “an end-state in view,” for now, “we need to think about continuing to impose our will on the enemy and continuing this fight at a very high level.”

The president spoke to NBC News and commented for the first time on the three Americans who have been killed in the war.

“We expect casualties with something like this. We have three, but we expect casualties — but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world,” Mr. Trump said. 

Mr. Trump told NBC that “there are many outcomes that are good.” 

“Number one is decapitating them, getting rid of their whole group of killers and thugs. And there are many, many outcomes. We could do the short version or the longer version,” he said.

In his video announcing the start of the strikes early Saturday morning, the president said: “The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war. But we’re doing this, not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.”

Mehdi Taj, the president of Iran’s soccer federation, cast doubt on the national team’s ability to play World Cup matches in the U.S. later this year.

Iran is scheduled to play two World Cup games in Inglewood, California, and one in Seattle.

Taj told an Iranian sports television show he wasn’t sure how it would be possible following Saturday’s strikes.

“What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope,” Taj told sports portal Varzesh3.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said B-2 bombers were used to attack Iranian ballistic missile facilities on Saturday night. 

“Last night, U.S. B-2 stealth bombers, armed with 2,000 lb. bombs, struck Iran’s hardened ballistic missile facilities,” CENTCOM wrote on X. “No nation should ever doubt America’s resolve.”

The post included a video of a B-2:

B-2 bombers were used in last summer’s U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer. At the time, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that mission was the “largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history.”

Intelligence gathered over months by the CIA and shared with Israeli counterparts led to the missile strike that killed Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials on Saturday, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. 

The spy agency had been tracking Khamenei’s location for several months before Saturday’s joint U.S.-Israeli strikes, gaining deeper insight into his whereabouts as he moved around. The agency then learned about a Saturday morning meeting of senior Iranian officials at a compound in Tehran that Khamenei was expected to attend.

That insight, relayed to Israeli counterparts, accelerated the timeline for a strike to capitalize on the opportunity, the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters, told CBS News.

Read more here.

President Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen Sunday that the U.S. operation in Iran is “moving along very well, very well — ahead of schedule.”

“It’s a very violent regime, one of the most violent regimes in history,” Mr. Trump said in a phone call with Kernen. “We’re doing our job not just for us, but for the world. And everything is ahead of schedule.”

The president has been overseeing the assault from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

He mentioned a potential off-ramp to end the conflict. He said it depends on many variables but  expressed optimism.

“Things are evolving in a very positive way right now, a very positive way,” Mr. Trump said.

The president said in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. has sunk nine ships in the Iranian navy and “largely destroyed” the navy’s headquarters in separate attacks.

“I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important,” Mr. Trump said. “We are going after the rest — They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also! In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters. Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!”

President Trump told The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer in a phone call Sunday morning that Iran’s new leaders want to talk with him, and he plans to do so.

“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long,” Mr. Trump told Scherer. He did not say when he will be speaking with the Iranians. 

Scherer said the president, after seeing people in the streets celebrating in Iran and in the U.S., seemed confident that the Iranian people would rise up, saying, “That is going to happen. You are seeing that, and I think it’s gonna happen. A lot of people are extremely happy over there and in Los Angeles and in many other places.” 

Though some oil analysts are watching to see if oil prices rise when those markets open Sunday night, Mr. Trump predicted that because the operation has been successful so far, it would be less likely to cause a spike in oil prices.

“This could have been a huge price increase with respect to oil, if things went wrong,” Mr. Trump said.

President Trump told Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich that 48 Iranian leaders have been killed in the operation: “Forty-eight leaders are gone in one shot. And it’s moving along rapidly.”

Heinrich, who said she had spoken with Mr. Trump by phone, posted on X that he told her, “If we didn’t do that, they would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks. And then all of this would not have been possible.”

Senior Trump administration officials told reporters Saturday that Tehran had about 450 kg of 60% enriched uranium and was technically one week from being able to reach 90% weapons grade uranium if they pursued it. Building a nuclear weapon, however, would take months, according to a U.S. intelligence summary produced when the U.S. and Israel carried out strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities last June.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who had led his country’s negotiating team in indirect talks with the Trump administration before the launch of the joint U.S. and Israeli war, said that despite the strikes, “nothing has changed” in Iran’s military capability.

“This is exactly what happened last time. You remember in June when Israel attacked us. They killed some of our top commanders at the beginning of the strikes, but they were replaced very soon, and in less than 12 hours, we were able to start retaliation,” Araghchi told ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday.

“This time, it was even, you know, faster. In less than two hours, we started to, you know, retaliate by attacking, you know, Israeli targets and, you know, American bases in the region and we have continued to do so,” he said. “So, our military is in place. They are capable enough to defend our country.” 

Araghchi also said Tehran has started the procedure for an assembly of experts to elect a new supreme leader.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said he advised President Trump not to “miss this opportunity” ahead of the strikes on Iran. 

“I spent the entire day with President Trump on Friday, right before he launched these attacks. He and I discussed this at length on Friday,” Cruz said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” “My counsel to him was that the Iranian regime has never been weaker, that it was teetering, and now was the time.”

Cruz said the president “acted decisively, and Iran no longer being led by a theocratic, murderous dictator, that makes America much, much safer.”

“President Trump’s decision to launch this decisive action against Iran is the single most important decision of his presidency,” Cruz said. “I think he laid out powerfully and effectively why he is taking this action. He is taking this action because the government of Iran is a profound and malign influence; they have been the leading state-sponsor of terrorism for 47 years.”

Cruz said Mr. Trump called off active diplomacy amid talks between the U.S. and Iran “because the diplomacy was an abject failure.”

“The Iranians approached the diplomacy with arrogance, with absolute hubris,” Cruz said. “They said they would not stop enriching no matter what.”

Cruz said Mr. Trump understood that the Iranian negotiations were just a “stall tactic.” The Texas Republican said he told the president that “there’s only one deal you should accept, and it’s the deal that you offered Maduro.”

“If you want to leave and flee the country, you can do so,” Cruz said. “Anything else is unacceptable, and Khamenei made his choice.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Gang of Eight lawmakers, who are briefed on classified matters, that the timing and scope of the joint operation were influenced by Israel’s determination to proceed with strikes with or without the U.S.

This made the central question not whether military action would occur, but whether the U.S. would join Israel at the outset or wait to respond only if Iran retaliated against American forces in the region, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Washington Post was first to report these details.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, “I saw no evidence that Iran was on the verge of launching any kind of preemptive strike against the United States of America.”

OPEC Plus, a group of eight oil-producing countries, said Sunday that it will increase oil production by 206,000 barrels a day in April in an effort to mitigate the impact on oil prices during the latest conflict in the Middle East.

The group, which includes Arab Gulf countries and Russia, has said in a statement that its members will “closely monitor and assess market conditions, and in their continuous efforts to support market stability.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his country’s strikes on Iran, launched Saturday in conjunction with the U.S. military on President Trump’s orders, “will increase even more in the coming days.”

“We eliminated the dictator Khamenei and dozens of senior officials of the oppressive regime. Our forces are now striking the heart of Tehran with increasing strength, which will increase even more in the coming days,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

He said he had met Sunday with his defense and intelligence chiefs and given them “instructions for the continuation of the campaign” against Iran — an operation he said he had “been hoping to do for 40 years — to strike the terrorist regime squarely in the face.”

“We are also bringing to this campaign the assistance of the United States, my friend, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the U.S. military,” said Netanyahu. “This combination of forces allows us to do what I promised.” 

Netanyahu acknowledged that Iran’s retaliatory strikes were bringing “painful days” to Israel, and he mourned the loss of at least eight people killed earlier Sunday in an Iranian missile strike on the city of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem.

A person familiar with the matter told CBS News on Sunday that the CIA had been tracking Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s location for months, gaining fidelity on his whereabouts as he moved around. 

The agency also obtained advance insight into a Saturday morning meeting of senior Iranian officials that Khamenei was expected to attend. That insight, relayed with high confidence with Israeli counterparts, accelerated the timeline for a strike in order to capitalize on the opportunity, according to the source.

The New York Times first reported that CIA intelligence had led to the strike that killed Khamenei, who had ruled over Iran with complete authority on all matters since 1989.

The U.S. military’s Central Command dismissed the Iranian military’s claim to have struck an American aircraft carrier in the Middle East with missiles as a lie on Sunday. 

“Claims to have struck USS Abraham Lincoln with ballistic missiles. LIE,” said CENTCOM in a social media post, not long after the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have “struck” the American carrier.

“The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft in support of CENTCOM’s relentless campaign to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime,” the military command said.

“Three U.S. service members have been killed in action and five are seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said Sunday in a statement shared on social media, confirming the first American casualties of the war sparked the previous day by the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.

The military’s initial statement did not give details on where the casualties took place.

“Several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions — and are in the process of being returned to duty. Major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing,” CENTCOM said, without providing additional information on the nature of any of the casualties.

“The situation is fluid, so out of respect for the families, we will withhold additional information, including the identities of our fallen warriors, until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified,” CENTCOM said.

Read more here.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed on Sunday to have “struck” the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf. 

“The U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was struck by four ballistic missiles,” the Guards said in a statement conveyed by Iran’s state-run media. It warned that the “the land and sea will increasingly become the graveyard of the terrorist aggressors.”

The Lincoln has been deployed in the Arabian Sea, south of Iran, for weeks as part of the massive U.S. military buildup ordered by President Trump.

There was no immediate confirmation that Iranian missiles had managed to evade its defense systems to strike the ship on Sunday.

Contacted by CBS News about the Iranian claims of a strike on the Lincoln, a representative at the U.S. military’s Central Command, which is responsible for deployments in the Middle East, declined to comment. There was no immediate response from the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet to CBS News’ request for information.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led his country’s negotiating team in indirect talks with the Trump administration before the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war on Iran Saturday, said if Washington’s aim was to topple the Islamic Republic regime, it would prove “an impossible mission.”

“If their goal is regime change, that is an impossible mission. The absence or death of the leader does not mean that,” Araghchi told the Qatari TV network Al Jazeera. “State institutions remain in place, and we have constitutional procedures. You may see the election of a new supreme leader within a day or two.”

Iran’s ruling clerics chose the country’s supreme leader from among their own ranks, he is not elected via national polling.

“We have always been open to diplomacy, unlike the United States, which attacked us for the second time during negotiations,” Araghchi said. “This time the situation is different. They must explain why they did this — but only after the attacks stop. Everything depends on when the aggression ends.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that an interim leadership council established after the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had begun its work.

“The interim leadership council started its work,” said Pezeshkian, who is among three people tapped to lead the new council. 

“We will continue with all our strength along the path set by Imam Khomeini,” he said in a recorded video statement broadcast on state TV.

Khomeini was modern Iran’s first supreme leader, who founded the Islamic Republic regime in 1979 after a revolution that toppled its previous, Western-allied government led by a shah, or king.

Pezeshkian added a fresh threat that Iran’s military would “forcefully crush the enemy’s bases” in the region.

CBS/AFP

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem issued an alert on Sunday urging Americans in Israel to shelter in place and warning that it was “not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel.”

The embassy ordered all U.S. government employees and their family members to continue sheltering in place in or near their residences until further notice. 

“Given the security situation and in compliance with Israel Home Front Command guidance, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem will be closed on Monday March 2, 2026. This includes the Consular Sections in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. There will be no passport (emergency or regular) or Consular Report of Birth Abroad services,” the embassy said.  

It noted that the country’s biggest airport, Ben Gurion, remained closed to all traffic.

The embassy remind U.S. citizens “of the continued need for caution and increased personal security awareness – including knowing the location of the nearest shelter in the event of a red alert as security incidents, such as mortar, rocket, and missile fire, and unmanned aircraft system (UAS) intrusions, often take place without any warning. The security environment is complex and can change quickly.”

During the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025, many Americans were stranded in Israel, and the U.S. Embassy offered no support with evacuations, while citizens of a number of other countries were evacuated by their embassies.

Some of the Americans left stranded last summer resorted to paying high prices to be privately evacuated from Israel by boat or via Jordan. CBS News spoke with some Americans who voiced surprise by the lack of support from the U.S. Embassy.