The U.S. military death toll in the war with Iran rose to 17 on Sunday after another service member was killed in northern Iraq, highlighting the lethal reach of a conflict fought primarily with drones, missiles and aircraft rather than large formations of ground troops.

U.S. Central Command said the latest death occurred Saturday during the controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone. A second service member suffered a minor injury and was receiving medical care. The military did not immediately release the dead service member’s identity, following its policy of notifying relatives before publicly identifying casualties.

The announcement came one day after the military reported that two American service members had been killed while defending against Iranian ballistic missiles and drones in Jordan. Another service member was listed as missing after that attack. Central Command said Sunday that unidentified remains had been recovered and were undergoing examination, leaving open the possibility that the toll could change again.

The Jordan attack initially brought the number of American military deaths in the conflict to 16. The subsequent fatality in Iraq raised it to 17, according to the Associated Press and other reports citing Central Command. More than 430 U.S. personnel have been wounded since the war began on Feb. 28.

The casualties show that the absence of a conventional invasion does not insulate American forces from danger. The United States relies on a dispersed network of installations, ports, airfields and logistics sites across the Middle East. Those facilities support fighter missions, aerial refueling, missile defense, surveillance and maritime operations, but they also provide Iran with potential targets outside Iranian territory.

The first U.S. fatalities came shortly after hostilities began, when an Iranian drone struck a civilian port facility in Kuwait and killed six American soldiers. The personnel belonged to an Iowa-based supply and logistics unit and were working from a shipping-container-style structure that lacked substantial defenses, according to the AP’s account of the casualties.

A seventh soldier died more than a week after being wounded in a March 1 Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Later in March, six service members were killed when a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft supporting U.S. operations crashed in Iraq. Central Command said the aircraft had been flying in friendly airspace when an unspecified incident involving another aircraft occurred.

A Navy pilot was also declared dead following a helicopter emergency in the Arabian Sea. The Navy initially characterized the July 1 incident as an emergency landing and said there was no indication that hostile action had caused it. Three other sailors aboard the helicopter were rescued.

The varied circumstances of the deaths reflect the complicated risk profile of modern air warfare. Some troops have been killed by direct Iranian attacks, while others died in aviation incidents or while handling remnants of intercepted weapons. Support personnel, aircrews and troops responsible for logistics or base defense can face risks comparable to those of forces conducting strikes.

The danger has increased as an interim arrangement intended to end the fighting has unraveled. U.S. and Iranian forces have exchanged attacks for days, with Washington targeting Iranian military infrastructure and Tehran firing missiles and drones at American forces and U.S.-aligned countries around the region.

Following the deaths in Jordan, the United States launched another wave of airstrikes against Iran. Central Command said the attacks targeted coastal surveillance systems, air-defense facilities, maritime capabilities and storage locations for missiles and drones. The military described the operation as an effort to punish Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and reduce its capacity to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait, a narrow passage linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, has become a central front in the conflict. Shipping traffic has fallen sharply, and the United States has sought to keep commercial vessels moving while pressuring Iran’s ability to control the route. Before the war, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passed through the waterway, making any prolonged disruption a threat to global energy prices and the U.S. economy.

Iran has responded by broadening the geography of its attacks. Air defenses have been activated in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and other Gulf states as drones and missiles crossed regional airspace. An Iranian attack on Kuwait damaged infrastructure associated with water and electricity, while missiles fired toward the Jordanian port city of Aqaba raised concerns about possible spillover into nearby Israeli territory.

That pattern places U.S. partners in an increasingly difficult position. Governments that host American troops or permit U.S. operations face Iranian retaliation even when they are not direct participants in strikes on Iran. Damage to desalination facilities, power systems, airports or ports could also impose civilian costs far beyond military installations.

The Pentagon has emphasized that its forces remain prepared to defend themselves and regional partners. But Iran’s use of large missile barrages and relatively inexpensive one-way drones can strain defensive systems by forcing commanders to track, intercept and dispose of repeated incoming threats. Even successfully downed weapons may remain dangerous, as the fatal incident in Iraq demonstrated.

The deaths are likely to intensify scrutiny in Congress over the administration’s military objectives, the legal basis for continued operations and the level of protection provided to American personnel. President Donald Trump has said the war is necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The latest fighting, however, has expanded into a broader confrontation over regional bases, infrastructure and freedom of navigation.

The administration must now balance demands for retaliation with the risk that further strikes could produce additional Iranian attacks on U.S. personnel. Each round of escalation expands the number of installations requiring protection and increases the chance of mistakes, accidents or unintended casualties in densely populated areas.

The conflict remains dominated by air power, but its costs are increasingly visible on the ground—from military families in the United States awaiting casualty notifications to communities across the Middle East living near bases and critical infrastructure. The 17 American deaths demonstrate that an air-centered campaign can reduce the need for frontline ground formations without making the war remote, contained or low-risk.