‘It needs to end now’: Democrats urge Trump to halt Iran war after US troop deaths

Trump in the White House Rose Garden earlier this month. Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters View image in fullscreen Trump in the White House Rose Garden earlier this month. Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters ‘It needs to end now’: Democrats urge Trump to halt Iran war after US troop deaths President accused of having ‘lost control of this war’ as deaths of trio in Iranian military strikes fuel rising concern Democrats have seized on the deaths of three US troops killed in Iranian strikes to urge Donald Trump to urgently reverse his resumption of the war with Iran amid widespread anxiety over climbing casualties. Even as US forces launched a 10th consecutive wave of attacks against Iranian targets, concern over the deaths of American service personnel threatened to complicate moves to escalate the conflict, which has reignited after he last week walked away from a memorandum of understanding agreed with Iran in June. The Pentagon released the names of two soldiers killed in a strike on Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan on Friday. They were First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Private Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. A third member of the armed forces was killed in northern Iraq on Saturday in what US Central Command called a “controlled detonation” of unexploded ordnance. The remains of a possible fourth dead service member were found over the weekend in Jordan. Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, accused Trump of having “frighteningly lost control of this war”. “For those of us who pay attention to the hour-to-hour pace of the Iran War, things are getting very dark very quickly,” he wrote on social media. “The scale of attacks – and threats of escalation – are increasing rapidly.” The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, declared that the US would not be deterred by the casualties, writing: “Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.” Iran has vowed to carry out retaliatory strikes against US Gulf allies, which it has branded “collaborators” for providing logistical facilities for strikes on Iranian territory. In a brief telephone conversation with NewsNation, Trump called the deaths “a very sad thing” and said the service members had died “in service of our country”. But he faced a chorus of calls from Democrats to step back from his belligerent posture even as Republicans remained supportive. “The reckless and costly war of choice in Iran has been a disaster for the American people,” wrote Hakeem Jeffries , the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives. “May God continue to watch over our troops who have needlessly been put into harm’s way.” Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate intelligence committee and a Democrat from Virginia, said there were “hundreds of seriously wounded” US personnel, and added it was “remarkable” that casualty figures had not been higher. “This is what happens when you start a war of choice. And as a member of the Gang of Eight , I can say uneq