Shutterstock
The Iranian missile attack injured 34 US servicemembers, new reports say. The attack occurred on January 8 on a US-held base in Iraq on January 8.
On Friday, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman confirmed that soldiers had suffered brain injuries, contradicting earlier statements by the Pentagon and the president that no soldiers had been injured in the attack.
At the time of this writing, seventeen of the soldiers injured in the attack have returned to active duty. A remaining seventeen are still receiving treatment: nine in Germany, and eight back stateside. Their injuries resulted from the concussive force of the missile detonations against the base, resulting in traumatic brain injuries.
President Trump initially claimed that no US personnel had been injured in the attack. Trump backpedaled on those earlier statements, claiming that the brain injuries weren’t as traumatic as “combat injuries.”
“No, I heard that they had headaches, and a couple of other things, but I would say, and I can report, it’s not very serious,” Trump stated while answering a question about the servicemembers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Iranian attack on January 8 came as a direct response to the US assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. A US drone targeted and killed Soleimani, a high-ranking member of the Iranian government, in early January.
The attack on the US base in Iraq came as a retaliation for Soleimani’s death, according to Iranian leadership. However, the attack seems to have purposefully avoided hitting any US servicemembers directly, as the death of a US soldier would have likely dramatically escalated the situation in the region.
Early statements pointed out that the attack killed no US personnel. People accepted this news eagerly. It meant that a full-scale war with Iran was not the next logical step.
However, the news that the attack injured 34 servicemembers undercuts those earlier statements and casts doubt on the accuracy of the initial reports.
