Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Americans that additional U.S. casualties are likely as the conflict with Iran escalates, with seven service members already killed in the fighting.
Hegseth addressed the growing toll during a television interview while discussing the expanding U.S. military operation against Iran. The Pentagon chief framed the losses as the harsh reality of combat operations.
“The president’s been right to say there will be casualties. Things like this don’t happen without casualties,” Hegseth told CBS News during an interview on “60 Minutes.”
“There will be more casualties, and no one is — I mean, especially our generation knows what it’s like to see Americans come home in caskets, it’s — but that doesn’t weaken us one bit, it stiffens our spine and our resolve to say this is a fight we will finish,” he added.
The warning came after the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran following months of rising tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Iran responded with attacks across the region, launching missiles and drones at Israel and several Gulf nations including Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
U.S. Central Command later confirmed that a seventh American service member had died from injuries connected to Iran’s opening wave of attacks.
According to Centcom, the soldier had been severely wounded during strikes on American forces stationed in Saudi Arabia.
The command reported that the service member died from “injuries received during the Iranian regime’s initial attacks across the Middle East” on March 1.
The Pentagon had already been mourning six troops killed in a drone strike targeting American personnel in Kuwait earlier in the conflict.
President Donald Trump attended the dignified transfer ceremony honoring those six fallen soldiers at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
The ceremony brought together top administration officials and military leaders.
Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance were present alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.
The soldiers killed in the Iranian drone strike included Maj. Jeffery R. O’Brien of Indianola, Iowa; Capt. Cody A. Khork of Winter Haven, Florida; Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert M. Marzan of Sacramento, California; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens of Bellevue, Nebraska; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady of West Des Moines, Iowa.
President Trump and the First Lady honor the fallen at Dover Air Force Base 🙏
May God bless these brave heroes and their families 🇺🇸
Capt. Cody Khork
Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor
Sgt. Declan Coady
Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien
Chief Warrant Officer 3… pic.twitter.com/pJiBXLuRMO— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) March 7, 2026
Air Force One landed at Dover at 1:09 p.m., and the president traveled to meet with families of the fallen shortly afterward.
Trump emerged at the transfer ceremony hours later and saluted as each flag-draped transfer case was carried off a C-17 Globemaster aircraft.
The president later spoke about the emotional meetings with the soldiers’ relatives.
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“The parents were so proud of their boy, as they called him, ‘My boy.’ In one case, a young lady. Their parents are so proud,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One during the flight to Miami.
As the war widened, Iranian officials signaled that their military stands ready to fight any further escalation.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that Iranian troops are prepared to confront American forces if the conflict moves onto Iranian soil.
“For the time being we are capable enough. We have very brave soldiers, who are waiting for any enemy who enters into our soil to fight with them, and to kill them and destroy them,” Araghchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The warning followed speculation about whether the United States might consider deploying ground forces.
Administration officials have not ruled out that possibility. Trump addressed the scenario while speaking with reporters about the direction of the war.
“[It would] have to be [for] a very good reason. And I would say if we ever did that, they would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight at the ground level,” Trump remarked.
The Iranian foreign minister also rejected Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender.
Araghchi argued that Iran would never capitulate and insisted leadership decisions belong solely to the Iranian people.
“We allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs,” Araghchi stated. “This is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader. They have already elected the Assembly of Experts, and the Assembly of Experts will do the job. It’s only the business of the Iranian people, and nobody else’s business.”
Iranian state media later reported that clerics selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to lead the country.
The 56-year-old cleric was reportedly chosen by the Assembly of Experts following the death of his father.
The elder Khamenei had ruled Iran for more than three decades before the United States confirmed he was killed during an airstrike on Feb. 28.
Trump signaled that Washington intends to play a role in shaping Iran’s future leadership if the war reshapes the regime.
The president outlined conditions for any government seeking improved relations with the United States.
Those demands include ending uranium enrichment capable of producing nuclear weapons, dismantling Iran’s ballistic missile program and halting support for militant proxy groups.
Trump also rejected the idea that Mojtaba Khamenei should succeed his father.
“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodríguez] in Venezuela,” Trump explained during an interview.
“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”
Trump later expanded on the administration’s strategy during remarks to Reuters.
“We want to be involved in the process of choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future, so we don’t have to go back every five years and do this again and again,” Trump said.
“We want somebody that’s going to be great for the people, great for the country.”
The president indicated that multiple figures could be considered for leadership roles as the situation evolves.
Trump suggested that candidates including Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former shah, remain “in the mix.”
During the same interview, Hegseth also dismissed concerns that Russia could tilt the battlefield in Iran’s favor.
Reports had surfaced claiming Moscow provided intelligence that helped Iranian forces identify American bases across the region.
Hegseth rejected the suggestion that such cooperation would threaten U.S. operations.
“No one’s putting us in danger,” Hegseth told CBS News. “We’re putting the other guys in danger, that’s our job, so we’re not concerned about that.”
The defense secretary explained that American commanders already factor those risks into their battlefield planning.
“We mitigate it as we need to,” Hegseth added. “Our commanders factor all of this, but the only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they’re going to live.”
Russia condemned the joint U.S. and Israeli strikes shortly after the attacks began. Moscow also called for an immediate halt to the war.
The Russian Foreign Ministry described the operation as “a preplanned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent U.N. member state.”
IF we dont send in Ground forces if minimum