Mohammed Al-Minshawi-Washington
The statement of the US Central Military Command - according to which a number of American soldiers were treated after having suffered concussions as a result of explosions caused by Iranian missiles at Ein al-Assad base in Iraq - left many questions in Washington.
The statement indicated that with the aim of preventive measures, three soldiers were transferred to Arifjan camp in Kuwait and eight others were transferred to Landstuhl Hospital, Germany.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard had fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at the base of Ain al-Assad, in response to the killing of the General in the Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani.
A very important development
For her part, Calais Thomas, a foreign policy expert in the Middle East at the New National Security Institute, spoke to Al-Jazeera Net, saying, "Of course, the declaration of declaring that there were no casualties is a false statement, but it helped calm the situation before the picture became clear after a few days."
"The Trump administration has breathed a sigh of relief, with no deaths or serious injuries among members of the American forces," she added.
Calais believes that this is what led to the release of a statement from the White House saying that no one was injured, which "in turn helped calm the American side rather than an immediate escalation."
She noted that the failure to mention the occurrence of some injuries may have been unintended in the hours following the attacks, "so this announcement represents very important news and development," according to what I mentioned to Al Jazeera Net.
The Pentagon did not lie
On the other hand, a former diplomat for Al-Jazeera Net spoke, saying that "the Pentagon did not lie. All of the Ministry of Defense data indicated from the first moment that the losses are being evaluated, and it was not mentioned on any occasion that there were no casualties."
The former diplomat accused the White House of causing this scandal, for reasons that mainly serve the interest and image of President Donald Trump.
For her part, Brookings Institution researcher Tamara Witis commented - in a tweet - criticizing Trump's stance, and said she was sorry "toward these soldiers, their families, and their colleagues who heard President Trump tell the American people that no American was hurt by Iran's missile strikes."
For his part, CNN analyst Jim Societo defended the Pentagon's stance, saying, "The Pentagon did not lie, these casualties emerged after the bombing and tension ended. No one mentioned that the Iranian missiles were accurate in hitting their targets."
Socito posed two unanswered questions: Did Iran intentionally not kill Americans? Was it right for the United States not to respond to these injuries?