Fox News host Maria Bartiromo pressed former Trump administration official Victoria Coates on Sunday over how Iran was able to launch a fatal strike against American forces.
United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Saturday that two American service members were killed in action and one other service member was missing after a base in Jordan was hit by Iranian ballistic missiles and drones. The “Sunday Morning Futures” host questioned how the strike could have inflicted casualties after President Donald Trump claimed Iran’s military had been “obliterated.”
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“I don’t understand how it’s possible that Iran has the capabilities to fight this way and continue to try to lash out at Gulf countries and U.S. military bases because the U.S. has obliterated Iran’s military and the president continues to reiterate that,” Bartiromo told Coates. The former deputy national security adviser who served during Trump’s first term responded, “Yes, and if you look at the numbers of missiles that they’ve been able to fire off from the beginning of this war — you know, late February, early March — and what they’re able to do now, it is very seriously degraded.”
CENTCOM subsequently announced Sunday that a U.S. service member in northern Iraq had been killed Saturday while trying to neutralize “unexploded ordnance” from an Iranian drone. In addition, unidentified remains found at the base in Jordan attacked by Iran were under “an examination process.”
Since the ceasefire collapsed July 7 and Trump reimposed sanctions following Iranian attacks on merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz, multiple outlets reported Iran had attacked targets in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Syria, and Iraq. Prior to July 7, the United States and Iran had exchanged strikes, with each claiming the other side was violating the terms of the ceasefire agreed to on June 14.
CENTCOM Update on Recently Fallen U.S. Service Members
TAMPA, Fla. — Yesterday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the passing of two U.S. service members and the missing status of one in Jordan following an Iranian attack on July 17. After a thorough search, U.S.…
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 19, 2026
Coates also noted Trump met Tuesday with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi and would be meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Auon. Meanwhile, the Syrian government had captured a shipment of weapons that Iran was sending to the radical Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah. Coates also noted Iraq and Syria were “working” to restart a pipeline which could eventually allow some oil exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
“It shows you the situation is not what it was five years ago, when Iran could act with impunity in Syria,” Coates claimed.
(DCNF)