Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency said on Thursday that six members of the country’s regular military, including three pilots, were killed in US strikes on southern Iran this week, bringing the reported military death toll from the latest attacks to at least 13.
Tasnim identified the pilots as Mojtaba Bagheri and Hamed Okati of the Iranian Navy and Hossein Mahdavian of the Iranian Air Force. The agency provided no further details about where or how they were killed.
Three members of the Basij paramilitary force were also reported killed in a US strike on Lavan Island in the Gulf, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed that four members of its Aerospace Force were killed in Kermanshah in western Iran.
The reported deaths bring the number of Iranian military personnel killed in the latest US strikes to at least 13, according to Reuters.
The United States carried out the strikes overnight between Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, ending a month-long lull in major attacks. US Central Command said military targets along Iran’s southern coast were struck in response to Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
An Iranian Health Ministry official separately said 18 people were killed and 142 injured in US attacks between Aug. 30 and Sept. 2, including victims of a strike on a wedding gathering in Kuhestak in southern Iran.