Officials previously said the attack, which flung some U.S. troops from towers with powerful blasts, did not produce injuries.
BAGHDAD — Eleven U.S. troops were injured following the Jan. 8 Iranian strikes on a base in Iraq, defense officials said Thursday, reversing assurances from President Trump and the Pentagon that no Americans had been hurt.
Those troops are still being assessed for concussion symptoms following the blast, Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement. Eight U.S. troops were evacuated to a U.S. base in Germany, he said, and the other three were sent to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.The missile barrage last week against the sprawling Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq
and a helicopter launch site. At least two soldiers were thrown through the window of a meters-high tower.U.S. officials disclosed numerous concussions as early as Jan. 13 but did not announce their severity or the evacuations untilThe acknowledgment marks a sharp turn from initial reports from defense officials and the president, who described thein retaliation for a U.S. strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad as inconsequential.
“No Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime. We suffered no casualties. All of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases,” TrumpBut concussions are not always as immediately evident as shrapnel or gunshot wounds, and in the ensuing days, U.S. troops were assessed for blast injuries. The 11 evacuated were sent for further care and screening “in an abundance of caution,” Urban said.
In the aftermath of the attack, Army Lt. Col. Tim Garland said that he had combed through the damage assessments with skepticism, believing it was impossible that no soldiers had been killed.“We all know that the initial report is always somewhat inaccurate … I personally almost lost two of my soldiers,” Garland told reporters at the base, describing how a blast as far as 50 meters from their position blew them out of a guard tower.The base hosts about 2,000 troops, 1,500 of them from the U.S.
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