List of 11 'Marines' killed in Afghanistan spreads as amount of Iran war casualties rise

The list recirculated online as the Department of Defense announced four more U.S. casualties. Published July 25, 2026 Claim: A list shared online accurately lists the names of 11 U.S. Marines who died in one week in 2026 during the war against Iran. Rating: ContextThe 11 service members — some of whom were in the Marines, while others served in the Army and one was British — actually died in Afghanistan in July 2010. At the time of this writing, 18 U.S. service members had been killed in action since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran on Feb. 28, 2026. None of the fallen service members were Marines, according to the Department of Defense. As the U.S. Department of Defense announced the deaths of four service members in Jordan and Iraq in July 2026 during the Iran war, a list (archived) of 11 names circulated online that social media users claimed were Marines who died "this week." For example, one Facebook user wrote: R.I.P. Justin Allen 23, Brett Linley 29, Matthew Weikert 29, Justus Bartett 27, Dave Santos 21, Jesse Reed 26, Matthew Johnson 21, Zachary Fisher 24, Brandon King 23, Christopher Goeke 23, and Sheldon Tate 27.... All are Marines who gave their lives this week for us ....for our freedom! There's no media for them at all... not even a mention of their names. Please honor them by copying and pasting this post. R.I.P. It is the least we can do. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 How could we ever be thankful enough? The list also circulated elsewhere on Facebook (archived, archived), and Snopes readers searched our site for the names. The list did not name Marines who died in July 2026. Rather, the service members named in the list died in Afghanistan in July 2010. Some were Marines, while others served in the Army. One was British. The same list previously circulated online in 2018, and we also reported on it in March 2026. While more than a dozen service members have lost their lives since the start of the war against Iran, online searches unveiled no credible reports that 11 U.S. Marines died in July 2026 (archived, archived, archived). According to the Department of Defense, none of the 18 U.S. service members who have died during the war in Iran were serving in the Marines. Therefore, we rate this claim false. Here's what we know about the 11 service members named in the list circulating online: Justin Bradley Allen was 23 when he died on July 18, 2010. According to his obituary, he was a U.S. Army Ranger. Brett George Linley was 29 when he died on July 18, 2010, in an explosion during a counter-IED operation in Afghanistan's Helmand province, according to the United Kingdom government. Linley, who was British, was a staff sergeant in the U.K. Royal Logistic Corps. Matthew Weikert was 29 when he died on July 17, 2010, while serving with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Weikert was a former Marine who served four tours in Iraq before Afghanistan, according to his obituary. Justus S. Bartelt (not Bartett, as online posts claimed), was 27 when he died in Afghanistan's Helmand province on July 16, 2010, according to his obituary. Bartelt was a Marine. Dave M. Santos was 21 when he died in Afghanistan's Helmand province on July 16, 2010, according to the Fallen Heroes Project website. Santos also was a Marine and served with Bartelt. Jesse D. Reed was 26 when he died of injuries sustained during an IED attack on July 14, 2010, according to a local news report. Reed was a specialist in the U.S. Army. Matthew James Johnson was 21 when he died in Afghanistan's Zabul province on July 14, 2010, according to his obituary. He was a specialist in the U.S. Army. Zachary M. Fisher was a 24-year-old U.S. Army sergeant who died of injuries sustained in an IED attack on July 14, 2010. According to Honor the Fallen, a website that tracks U.S. conflict casualties, Fisher, Reed, Johnson and Army Spc. Chase Stanley all died following the same IED attack on July 14. Brandon M. King was 23 when he died on July 14, 2010. Honor the Fallen reported that insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. King was a private first class in the U.S. Army. Christopher Shultz Goeke was a 23-year-old lieutenant in the U.S. Army when he died in battle in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on July 13, 2010, according to his obituary and Honor the Fallen. An NPR journalist who met Goeke months before his death produced an audio memorial in 2021 about the young soldier, where friends and family said he had an "unquenchable need to learn" and a love of debate. Sheldon Tate was 27 and a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army when he died on July 13, 2010. According to his obituary, Tate died from wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit. At the time of this writing, the Department of Defense had announced the deaths of 18 service members during the Iran war. (Multiple reputable news outlets reported in late July that four of those service members names no longer were listed on a Defense website; Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said this was due to a "temporary data disruption.") None of the 18 service members who died were Marines. Instead, they served in the Army, Army Reserve and Air Force. U.S. and Iranian officials initially reached a ceasefire in the war in April 2026. However, U.S. President Donald Trump said he thought that ceasefire was "over" on July 8. The four service members who were killed on July 17, 18 and 19 were the first U.S. casualties since July 8. Military and civilian casualties from the war in Iran are difficult to verify. Human Rights Activists in Iran, a U.S.-based group dedicated to furthering human rights within Iran, wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on April 20, the day before an extension to an initial ceasefire in the conflict, that it had received reports of at least 1,701 civilian deaths, with 700 additional deaths under review. Snopes' archives contributed to this report. Sources 1LT Christopher Shultz Goeke (1986-2010) - Find a... https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55021804/christopher_shultz-goeke. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.11 Us Marines Dead - Search News. https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=11+us+marines+dead&FORM=HDRSC7. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.11 Us Marines Dead - Yahoo Search Results. https://uk.news.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Awr.gDaOE7xpMAIAR0pLBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=11+us+marines+dead&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t. 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