'They will pay!' Trump yells furious vow as Iran war takes ominous twist
U.S. President Donald Trump reacts at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 15, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

President Donald Trump vowed vengeance Monday for the recent killings of three U.S. service members in the Middle East, pledging that any future American deaths would be answered "many times over."

“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military.”

On Monday, the Pentagon identified the two U.S. service members who were killed last weekend by an Iranian strike on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base: First Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Texas. The Pentagon announced the death of a third U.S. service member on Sunday, who they did not identify but who was said to have been killed in northern Iraq from a “controlled detonation” of an Iranian drone.

The Trump administration has been accused of withholding information on casualties and damage inflicted during the U.S. war against Iran, including several attacks earlier this month on U.S. assets in the Middle East.