Casualties mount across Middle East; Trump says military conflict could last months, won’t rule out ground troops

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in press conference today

March 2, 2026 (San Diego) – The U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in Operation “Epic Fury” which began Saturday are believed to have killed 49 senior Iranian officials, including the Ayatollah Khomeini, according to the White House. The USS Abraham Lincoln and stealth bombers based at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego were among the U.S. forces involved in the strikes.

At least four U.S servicemembers have been killed in retaliatory strikes by Iran, which has also sent bombs and drones targeting military and civilian sites across the Middle East. No details have yet been released on the Americans killed.

Iran’s Red Crescent claims 555 Iranians have been killed, including students at a girls' school and patients at a hospital that was struck, CBS news reports. At least 18 are dead in Israel after Iranian strikes on multiple locations, according to Times of Israel. Iranian strikes have also targeted airports, hotels and other sites in multiple Arab nations, as well as a British air base in Cyprus according to CNN, Al Jazeera and other media outlets, though U.S. defense systems have successful blocked most missile attacks, according to a press conference today held by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

At the White House, President Donald Trump said the war could last four to five weeks or more.  In an interview with the New York Post, he stated, “Every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it...I say ‘probably don’t need them,’” or “if they are necessary.”

Sec. Hegseth said the operation is the result of “47 years of aggression” by Iran against the U.S. and allies including arming terror groups. He said Iran was building a “powerful arsenal” of non-nuclear weapons to create a “conventional shield to their nuclear ambitions.”

Trump claimed last June that an attack dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer” had obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, a claim Hegseth repeated, though some experts have disputed the claim. 

The mission of Operation Epic Fury, according to Hegseth, is to “destroy Iranian missile production, Navy and security infrastructure” and to assure “they will never have nuclear weapons.”

Air Force General Dan Caine, during the press conference this morning, offered “deep condolences” to personnel killed in action, calling them “heroes” who “represent the best of our nation.”  He said additional losses can be expected during further major combat operations.

He provided operational details about the synchronized attack  that synchronized all branches of the U.S. military in coordination with Israel, an attack that included “hundreds of sorties on hundreds of targets.”

The Israeli Defense Force claims to have killed a leader of Hamas backed by Iran in Lebanon, as well as numerous strikes in Iran.

Hegseth, asked about sending U.S. ground troops into Iran, refused to rule out boots on the ground, stating, “We’ll go as far as we need to go to advance American interests.”  As for how long the conflict could last, he said the Trump administration would “never lay out in front of the press pool how long that might take.”

The attacks have drawn criticism from some members of Congress.

California Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, has criticized Trump for not consulting Congress and is calling for full disclosure to Congress and the American people.

San Diego Representative Sara Jacobs, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, in an interview on CNN, also denounced the attack and said more efforts should have been made to find a diplomatic solution.

Hegseth has claimed that diplomatic efforts were made but rejected by Iran.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a Republican, has also denounced the military action by the U.S. against Iran. On Facebook, he notes,  “The Constitution conferred the power to declare or initiate war to Congress for a reason, to make war less likely.”

He quotes founding father James Madison, who wrote that  “the Executive Branch is the branch most prone to war, therefore, the Constitution, with studied care, delegated the war power to the legislature.”

Senator Paul concludes, “As with all war, my first and purest instinct is wishing Americans soldiers safety and success in their mission. But my oath of office is to the Constitution, so with studied care, I must oppose another Presidential war.”