Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, was killed in Saudi Arabia.
President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israel strikes attack targeting military and government sites, officials said.
Iranian state television confirmed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed in Tehran on the first day of strikes. His son Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen on Sunday to succeed him.
Iran is responding to the operation with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and multiple Gulf nations. Israel is also intensifying its long-running strike campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
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President Donald Trump said that "the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties," in a video post on Truth Social early Saturday morning.
"That often happens in war. But we are doing this not for now, we are doing this for the future and it is a noble mission," Trump continued.
In his address, President Donald Trump said: "Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people."
President Donald Trump confirmed the U.S. military began "major combat operations in Iran," in a video posted to social media.
Israel and the U.S. have launched a joint attack on Iran, according to two U.S. officials.
The attacks have begun and they are being described as not small-scale, according to one U.S. official.
