Iran has Targeted and Killed Americans Worldwide for Decades?

America’s enemies are not hiding anymore—and Iran is at the center of a bloody, four-decade war against the United States and its allies. As fresh court cases and shocking admissions emerge, Republican leaders and national security experts warn: The Islamic Republic is responsible for hundreds of dead Americans, and their campaign is still raging worldwide.

Sen. Tom Cotton: ‘The Forever War Is Iran’s War on the U.S.’

Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., cut straight to the point on Tuesday, warning, “The forever war is the war that Iran has waged against the U.S., Israel, and the civilized world since 1979.” For over 40 years, Iran’s fingerprints have been found on attacks that killed Americans everywhere from Beirut to Baghdad—and the evidence keeps piling up.

Historic Attacks: From Hostage Crises to Suicide Bombings

Iran’s history of targeting Americans began almost immediately after the Islamic Revolution. In 1979, radical Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for a grueling 444 days—an international humiliation that Ayatollah Khomeini used to project Iran’s power on the world stage.

The bloodshed only escalated. In 1983, Iranian-backed terrorists drove a suicide truck bomb into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen—the deadliest single day for Marines since Iwo Jima. In a 2023 bombshell interview, an Iranian regime official openly admitted, “I quickly went to Lebanon and provided what was needed in order to carry out martyrdom operations in the place where the Americans and Israelis were.” The Ayatollah himself reportedly gave the order, though the regime later tried to bury the evidence.

It didn’t end there. In 1996, 19 U.S. Air Force personnel were killed in the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. American courts ultimately found Iran responsible, ordering the regime to pay hundreds of millions to the victims’ families.

Proxy Warfare: Iranian Money, American Blood

The cost in American lives keeps climbing. The Pentagon confirms Iran is directly responsible for at least 603 U.S. service member deaths in Iraq alone between 2003 and 2011. These killings, carried out by proxy militias armed, funded, and trained by Iran, account for nearly a fifth of all U.S. casualties in that war.

“Iran’s support for the Taliban and al Qaeda…is incalculable,” says Bill Roggio of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Iran provided money, weapons, training, intelligence, and safe haven to Taliban subgroups across Afghanistan, including in the heart of the country in Kabul.” He argues Iran’s support “facilitated nearly every Taliban attack on U.S. personnel.”

Just last year, a Washington D.C. court ordered Iran to pay damages for its role in terror attacks that killed or wounded 70 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Families of the fallen finally have the proof in black and white: Tehran is responsible.

Retaliation, Drones, and Dead Americans: The New Face of Iran’s War

When the Trump administration took out IRGC terror mastermind Qassem Soleimani in 2020, Iran responded with missile barrages on U.S. bases in Iraq. The regime’s proxies have only grown bolder since then, unleashing more than 180 attacks on U.S. troops across Syria, Iraq, and Jordan in the past year alone.

In January, a drone strike linked to Iran killed three American soldiers and wounded 25 more at a remote outpost in Jordan. “Iranian proxies have launched over 150 attacks on U.S. troops since October,” confirmed Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Tex., Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Republican lawmakers are demanding answers—and action.

Kidnappings and Assassinations: No American Safe

Iran’s reach extends far beyond the battlefield. In 2007, retired FBI agent Robert Levinson vanished from an Iranian island. Levinson was held hostage for years, with the U.S. government declaring him dead in Iranian custody in 2020. His family points the finger directly at Tehran.

The regime even sent assassins after targets on American soil. In 2020, California resident Jamshid Sharmahd survived an Iranian-backed assassination attempt, only to be kidnapped in Dubai. He was executed in Iran last year. “This regime does not stop at its borders,” said a former U.S. intelligence official. “They hunt Americans across the globe.”

Trump Targeted: ‘Enemy Number One’

Iran’s most audacious plot yet? According to the Department of Justice, an Iranian citizen and two New Yorkers were charged last November in a murder-for-hire scheme targeting multiple American citizens—including President Donald Trump. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed to Fox News, “They want to kill him. He’s enemy number one.”

Billions in Hostage Payments, Zero Accountability

Despite Tehran’s brutal record, the Biden administration quietly unfroze $6 billion in Iranian assets last September as part of a prisoner swap—fueling fears among Republicans that U.S. policy is rewarding terror and hostage-taking. “We cannot appease a regime that murders our citizens and plots assassinations on American soil,” Sen. Cotton said.

The Bottom Line

Iran’s war against America is no secret. From Beirut to Baghdad, Tehran’s terror machine has left a trail of blood and broken families. As new court victories expose the truth, Republican leaders are demanding the U.S. finally get serious about holding Iran accountable—for every American life lost, and every future threat to our country.