Israel had to respond to Iranian missiles, ambassador says

The US Department of Defense announced on Tuesday that Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, was killed on Saturday during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way unmanned aerial system at Erbil airbase in Iraq.

Two other US soldiers, First Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, were identified a day earlier as having died in Jordan while responding to Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.

The department has reported a total of 17 US service member deaths and hundreds of injuries in the ongoing conflict that began in February.

Reports indicate ongoing U.S. and Iranian military strikes in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, with the Trump administration stating openness to diplomacy while Iran continues to assert control over the shipping corridor. These actions have been linked in some accounts to the collapse of a prior ceasefire, U.

S. troop casualties, and higher gasoline prices. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is set to meet President Trump at the White House amid U.S.-mediated talks between Lebanon and Israel, following a June 26 framework agreement on Israeli withdrawals from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah disarmament.

The head of the International Energy Agency stated on July 21 that escalation in Middle East hostilities affecting the Strait of Hormuz and regional energy infrastructure has heightened supply security concerns, while noting that markets retain cushioning factors including higher exports and alternative routing of Saudi and UAE crude.

He also cited threats to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait as an additional risk. Reports indicate that Houthi declarations regarding potential Red Sea port blockades and shipping attacks prompted a restrained initial market response amid ongoing mediation references by Iran.

U.S. forces struck Iranian military sites, including command centers, missile and drone facilities, and air defenses in southern and western Iran on Tuesday, following President Trump's statements on retaliation for American troop deaths. Iranian forces reportedly targeted U.

S. bases in the Gulf, while a tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz and Yemen's Houthis announced a naval blockade affecting Saudi ports. Oil prices rose nearly 2 percent amid the events, with some reports of civilian casualties from the strikes and a later denial by an official in Khorramabad that an attack had occurred there.