US death toll in Iran war rises to 7 after service member dies from injuries in Saudi Arabia

The U.S. death toll in the war in Iran reached seven on Sunday after U.S. Central Command said a service member had been killed from injuries sustained in Saudi Arabia.

CENTCOM said the service member was seriously wounded and later succumbed to injuries after an attack on U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1. The command said it would not confirm the soldier's identity until the next of kin is identified.

The latest death brings the number of American fatalities since the conflict began to seven, marking the first U.S. service member to die from wounds sustained in the fighting rather than being killed outright in the initial attacks.

Six U.S. service members were previously killed during the early days of the conflict that began Feb. 28 after a large Iranian strike on a U.S. facility in Kuwait shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated operations against Iran.

U.S. officials said those deaths occurred when an Iranian drone struck a tactical operation center housing American personnel, a part of a wave of Iranian missile and drone attacks targeting U.S. bases and allied facilities in the Middle East in retaliation for the campaign against Iran.