US Reveals 11 Soldiers Hurt During Iranian Strikes in Iraq

The United States military has revealed that 11 soldiers sustained injuries during this month’s Iranian missile strikes on a base in Iraq, despite President Donald Trump’s assertion that no casualties were incurred. “While no US service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed,” the US military’s Central Command said in a statement. Eight of the injured American soldiers were transported to Germany, and the others to Kuwait, for medical observation. “As a standard procedure, all personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injury, and if deemed appropriate are transported to a higher level of care,” a US military spokesperson added. Most of the estimated 1,500 US soldiers stationed at the base had been instructed to enter bunkers ahead of the attack as the Pentagon reportedly became aware about it some 2.5 hours in advance. During a subsequent address to the nation, President Trump said that no US troops had been injured in the assault, which came in response to the January 3 assassination in a US drone stroke of Iranian Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. US military officials seemingly attempted to reconcile the contradiction, contending that the soldiers had only become symptomatic in recent days.