Breaking: Heavy US Casualties Reported As Iran Retaliates

The White House brain trust somehow convinced itself that if the US started sinking civilian Iranian tankers Iran would cry ‘Uncle’ due to the economic loss. It looks like they weren’t ready for what would happen next—as if they thought that Iran, after all these years, didn’t have a plan for every imaginable contingency. The US sank five civilian ships, so Iran launched massive missile strikes at US bases in Jordan. How could these geniuses not understand that Iran is looking to escalate and that US service personnel were in harm’s way with little protection? ‘Small potatoes?’ Iran will trade tankers for US casualties every day of the week.

The Hormuz Letter @HormuzLetter

3h

BREAKING: Iran’s IRGC announces it struck the deployment site for F-35, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets, as well as a fighter jet shelter, a maintenance and repair facility, and a preparation area at the US Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan with ballistic missiles, “inflicting significant damage.”

The Hormuz Letter @HormuzLetter

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BREAKING: A large number of injured US soldiers are being flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, some with life-threatening injuries, following tonight’s Iranian ballistic missile strikes on the Muwaffaq Salti and Prince Hassan air bases in Jordan, per a Jordanian source to Al Arabiya.

A US official tells Reuters minutes ago that all American troops in Jordan are “accounted for,” which is highly unusual wording and does not mean “no casualties,” as it is simply a headcount of every listed soldier. At least 4 of the missiles at Muwaffaq directly impacted, with no interceptors even fired at them.

Apparently the US forces used up all or most of their Patriot interceptors on the first wave. Then came the second wave. In addition, Iran is reported to have used cluster type warheads in their mix, which cause wide area damage on airfields—to landing strips, buildings, planes, personnel, whatever.

Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal

Twenty-six more Americans wounded in a war the Pentagon says ended in May

The military added them to its casualty database Tuesday under Overseas Operations, the label it has used for Middle East injuries and deaths since July 7, with no dates or locations given.

That column now holds 403 wounded between July 7 and September 8.

The Operation Epic Fury column holds another 417 from February to July, plus five injuries in June and a death in July.

Add the columns and 820 Americans have been wounded in seven months, more than the 756 the Pentagon acknowledged two weeks ago.

Matt Bracken @Matt_Bracken48…

I can only conjecture that the vast majority of the WIA are blast injured from nearby missile impacts. You can get behind cover with a minute or two of warning, but you can’t escape the blast overpressure.

This might be the “Agent Orange” or “Gulf War Syndrome” of Operation Epic Fury. Blast injured troops can suffer lifelong disabilities such as permanent negative mood changes, attention deficit, balance issues, memory issues, vision issues, hearing issues, etc etc.

Iran has made an additional claim for which there is no confirmation:

The Hormuz Letter @HormuzLetter

3h

BREAKING: Iran’s IRGC announces it struck the US destroyers USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119) and USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) with ballistic missiles in response to tonight’s US strikes on Iranian oil tankers, saying both Aegis warships were carrying cruise missiles and that the attack “caused significant damage to these vessels.”

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.