President Donald Trump shared a stark message on Sunday after three U.S. military troops were confirmed dead in the wake of the coordinated strikes on Iran.
Trump gave a series of one-on-one interviews with news outlets following the U.S. and Israeli strikes against several sites in Iran on early Saturday morning. The strikes killed Iranian dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several of the country's political leaders, according to reports.
In one interview with The Daily Mail, Trump said the service members, who have not yet been identified, were "great" people with "outstanding records."
"They're great people," Trump told The Daily Mail. "And, you know, we expect that to happen, unfortunately. Could happen continuous (sic) — it could happen again."
Trump said in his Saturday morning address announcing the strikes that acknowledged that U.S. lives could be lost in the "war" with Iran. Congress has not officially approved a declaration of war against the country, even though Trump has described the attack in such terms.
"The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties," Trump said on Saturday. "That often happens in war. But we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future."