The Pentagon on Friday disclosed that 34 US service members suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in Iran’s missile strike this month on an Iraqi air base, and although half have returned to work, the casualty total belies US President Donald Trump’s initial claim that no Americans were harmed.
He later characterized the injuries as “not very serious.”
Eight of the injured arrived in the US on Friday from Germany, where they and nine others had been flown days after the Jan. 8 missile strike on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base.
The nine still in Germany are receiving treatment and evaluation at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest US military hospital outside the continental US.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said the eight in the US would be treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, or at their home bases.
The exact nature of their injuries and their service and unit affiliations were not disclosed.
Trump had initially said he was told that no troops had been injured in the strike, which Iran carried out as retaliation for a US drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3.
The military said symptoms of concussion or traumatic brain injury were not immediately reported after the strike and in some cases became known days later.
Many were in bunkers before nearly a dozen Iranian ballistic missiles exploded.
After the Pentagon reported on Jan. 17 that 11 service members had been evacuated from Iraq with concussion-like symptoms, Trump said: “I heard they had headaches and a couple of other things ... and I can report it is not very serious.”
He said he did not consider the injuries to be as severe as those suffered by troops who were hit by roadside bombs in Iraq.
US Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat and former US Army Ranger, called on Trump to apologize.
“TBI is a serious matter,” Reed said in a statement. “It is not a ‘headache,’ and it’s plain wrong for President Trump to diminish their wounds. He may not have meant to disrespect them, but President Trump’s comments were an insult to our troops. He owes them an apology.”
Hoffman’s disclosure that 34 had been diagnosed with TBI was the first official update of the number injured since the Pentagon announced the evacuation of the first 11.
On Tuesday last week, officials said more had been sent out of Iraq for further diagnosis and treatment, but the Pentagon declined to provide firm figures.
Hoffman said that of the 34 with TBI, 18 were evacuated from Iraq to US medical facilities in Germany and Kuwait, and 16 stayed in Iraq.
The one sent to Kuwait has since returned to duty in Iraq, and the 16 who stayed in Iraq have since returned to duty, Hoffman said.
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