7th American Service Member Killed in Iran War Returns Home as Trump Signals Conflict May Be Nearing Its End

The seventh American service member killed in the war with Iran was returned home overnight, as President Trump offered mixed signals about how much longer the fighting will last.

Vice President JD Vance saluted Army Sgt. Benjamin Pennington during a dignified transfer ceremony. Pennington died Sunday from wounds suffered in an Iranian strike on a U.S. air base in Saudi Arabia on March 1st.

Nine days after that strike, President Trump told reporters the conflict may be winding down. "It's going to be ended soon," he said, though in the same remarks he warned that the U.S. would act swiftly if Iran moves to restrict the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping route. "We'll take them out so quickly, they'll never be able to recover, ever," Trump said.

The war has already choked off traffic through the Strait, and combined with strikes on oil infrastructure across the region, gas prices at home have jumped noticeably. 

Trump told NBC News by phone that while people have raised the idea of the U.S. seizing Iranian oil, he declined to discuss it. He also weighed in on Iran selecting a new Supreme Leader, the hardline son of the Ayatollah killed in the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes. "I was disappointed because we think it's going to lead to just more of the same problem for the country," Trump said.

A separate controversy is building around new video that weapons experts say shows a U.S. Tomahawk missile that likely struck an area near an Iranian elementary school at the start of the war, killing 170 people. Trump again asserted, without evidence, that Iran could have fired the missile, noting the weapon "is sold and used by other countries." Experts say that in this conflict, only the U.S. has that munition. Trump said the incident is under investigation.