{"id":203554,"date":"2026-03-10T03:51:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T03:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pete-hegseth-says-there-will-be-more-casualties-in-us-war-with-iran-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T03:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T03:51:40","slug":"pete-hegseth-says-there-will-be-more-casualties-in-us-war-with-iran-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pete-hegseth-says-there-will-be-more-casualties-in-us-war-with-iran-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth says \u2018there will be more casualties\u2019 in US war with Iran – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comments from defense secretary come as number of US service members killed in conflict has climbed to seven
Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox<\/a>
Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, has said \u201cthere will be more casualties\u201d in the US military from the Trump administration\u2019s war in Iran after officials confirmed on Sunday that the number of US service members killed had climbed to seven<\/a>.
Hegseth made the statement during an appearance<\/a> Sunday night on CBS\u2019s 60 Minutes, during which he portrayed Donald Trump\u2019s decision for the US to join Israeli attacks on the Middle East country as essential \u201cto advance American interests, and protect American lives\u201d.
Asked about the deaths of six army reservists in a retaliatory Iranian drone strike on a US base in Kuwait a week ago, Hegseth said: \u201cThe president\u2019s been right to say there will be casualties. Things like this don\u2019t happen without casualties. There will be more casualties.
\u201cNo one is, I mean, especially our generation knows, knows what it\u2019s like to see Americans come home in caskets. But that doesn\u2019t weaken us one bit. It stiffens our spine and our resolve to say this is a fight we will finish.\u201d
As the self-branded \u201csecretary of war\u201d, Hegseth \u2013 a former Fox News host \u2013 has been the bellicose public face<\/a> of what the US military has dubbed Operation Epic Fury. He has received criticism for allegedly revelling in the carnage of a conflict that, as of Monday, had already cost hundreds of lives in a matter of nine days.
Hegseth at one point promised \u201cdeath and destruction from the sky all day long\u201d. Those comments<\/a> were made four days after Iranian officials said at least 175 people were killed in an airstrike on an Iranian girls\u2019 school that military investigators believe was carried out by US forces<\/a>.
In his CBS interview, recorded on Friday and aired Sunday night, Hegseth promised that the assault on Iran so far \u2013 which the US military<\/a> said had struck at least 3,000 targets \u2013 was \u201conly just the beginning\u201d.
He also contradicted Republican House speaker Mike Johnson when the latter man claimed the US was not at war<\/a> with Iran \u2013 and that he believed the military operation in the Middle East was almost finished.
Speaking about the death of former Ayatollah Ali Khamenei early in the conflict, Hegseth said it was \u201cnot a regime-change war in the conventional sense\u201d and that the US forces would continue to operate until Trump\u2019s vague strategic objectives<\/a> had been met.
\u201cPeople ask, \u2018boots on the ground, no boots on the ground, four weeks, two weeks, six weeks, go in, go in?\u2019\u201d he said.
\u201cPresident Trump knows \u2013 I know \u2013 you don\u2019t tell the enemy, you don\u2019t tell the press, you don\u2019t tell anybody what your limits would be on an operation. We\u2019re willing to go as far as we need to in order to be successful.\u201d
But Hegseth was adamant that it was \u201cnot a fair fight\u201d and that Iran would soon be on its knees.
\u201cOur capabilities are overwhelming compared to what Iran\u2019s are,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd frankly, when you combine our air force with the air force of the [Israel] Defense Forces, it\u2019s the two most powerful air forces in the world.
\u201cThe ability for us to be up over the top and hunting with more conventional munitions, gravity bombs, 500lb, 1,000lb, 2,000lb bombs on military targets that, we haven\u2019t even really begun to start that effort of the campaign, which is gonna showcase even more how we will execute on those objectives.\u201d
The 60 Minutes host Major Garrett asked Hegseth about Trump\u2019s assertion he would not negotiate with Iran and instead seek the country\u2019s unconditional surrender.
\u201cIt means we\u2019re fighting to win,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cIt means we set the terms. We\u2019ll know when they\u2019re not capable of fighting. There\u2019ll be a point where they\u2019ll have no choice but to do that. Whether they know it or not, they will be combat-ineffective. They will surrender.\u201d
On Saturday, Trump insisted the deadly airstrike on the girls\u2019 school was conducted by Iran. \u201cBased on what I\u2019ve seen, that was done by Iran. They\u2019re very inaccurate as you know with their munitions,\u201d the president told reporters<\/a> on Air Force One.
By Sunday, however, footage was beginning to circulate<\/a> of what appeared to be a US Tomahawk missile striking in the vicinity of the elementary school close to a compound of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Hegseth on CBS appeared to take a step back from Trump\u2019s assertion. \u201cI would say that it\u2019s being investigated, which is the only answer I\u2019m prepared to give,\u201d he said.
<\/span> This article was amended on 9 March 2026. The number of army reservists killed in a retaliatory Iranian drone strike on a US base in Kuwait was six, not seven; the latter is the total number of US service members killed to date.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comments from defense secretary come as number of US service members killed in conflict has climbed to sevenSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxPete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, has said \u201cthere will be more casualties\u201d in the US military from the Trump administration\u2019s war in Iran […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-203554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}