US President Donald Trump is to attend the dignified transfer on Saturday of six soldiers killed in an Iranian attack on Kuwait, the White House said Friday, as the escalating war with Tehran brings home its first American dead.
The troops were killed Sunday when a drone struck a key US command center in Kuwait’s southern industrial hub of Port Shuaiba, a day after the United States and Israel launched a sweeping military campaign against Iran.
The ritual takes place at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the remains of US troops killed overseas are returned to American soil.
The fallen soldiers five men and one woman aged 20 to 54 were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, a unit responsible for supplying troops with food, fuel, equipment and ammunition.
A dignified transfer 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 in which flag-draped transfer cases carrying the remains of fallen troops are carried from an aircraft by a team of service members from the same branch.
The cases are then moved to waiting vehicles that transport them 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.
“Tomorrow, he’ll be traveling to Joint Base Dover, to attend the dignified transfer of the remains of the six service members who were killed in the opening salvo that Iran launched at our forces,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
The attack that killed them 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.
ft/ksb
