Dover (United States) (AFP) – US President Donald Trump attended the return Saturday of the bodies of the first six US soldiers killed during the escalating war with Iran. Trump, wearing a white “USA” baseball cap, saluted as troops carried each flag-draped case from a military transport plane at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the remains of US troops killed overseas are returned to American soil.
The US president was accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, and other senior officials and lawmakers. The troops were killed last Sunday when a drone struck a key US command center in Kuwait, a day after the United States and Israel launched a sweeping military campaign against Iran. The fallen soldiers — five men and one woman aged 20 to 54 — were reservists assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, based in Del Moines, Iowa — a unit responsible for supplying troops with food, fuel, equipment, and ammunition.
The “dignified transfer” of bodies of American service members is one of the most solemn duties undertaken by a US president. The process is not a formal government ceremony but a carefully choreographed military ritual. The flag-draped transfer cases were carried to waiting vehicles for transporting to the mortuary facility at Dover, where the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System conducts identification and prepares the remains for burial.
Trump has attended several such transfers during his presidency, and the White House had previously said he would honor the six killed in Kuwait, even before a date was announced. The attack that killed the six underscored the risks facing US personnel deployed across the Middle East as the conflict with Iran escalates, with Tehran launching drones and missiles toward American and allied targets throughout the region. US officials have warned that the fighting could intensify further in the coming days.
Trump traveled to Delaware for the transfer of the fallen troops after attending a summit of Latin American leaders Saturday morning in the southern state of Florida. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he warned the United States would hit Iran “very hard” and threatened to expand strikes to include new targets.
© 2024 AFP
