00:00The Trump administration has acknowledged that eight U.S. service members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier
00:07attempted to commit suicide while on deployment in the Middle East.
00:12The information emerged in a letter by acting Navy Secretary Hong Kao, the service's top civilian official,
00:18sent in response to questions from Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand about conditions on the vessel.
00:25Reports of deteriorating living conditions and poor mental health made headlines in the U.S. in recent months,
00:31sparking fierce criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump's war on Iran.
00:36The aircraft carrier had been at sea since last November, after sailing off from California to the South China Sea,
00:43before being rerouted to the Middle East in late February ahead of U.S.-Israeli attacks on Tehran.
00:49Kao said there have been no suicides on board during the deployment,
00:53specifying that some who attempted were rescued, while others were prevented by their colleagues.
00:58The ship left the Middle East in mid-August and is en route to its San Diego base,
01:03with the deployment currently standing at a record-setting 10 months.
01:07Information at the start is a general exercise of the National Geographic diocese of the U.S.
