Washington appears to have downplayed the consequences of the Iranian missile fire. A total of 34 US soldiers were victims of a concussion after Iran's attack on the Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq on January 8, the Pentagon announced on Friday.
Half have already returned to their units but eight soldiers have been repatriated to the United States and nine others evacuated to an American military hospital in Germany, to be treated there for symptoms of concussion due to the explosions, said during a conference Press release a spokesperson for the United States Department of Defense, Jonathan Hoffman.
Among the symptoms experienced by the soldiers, he cited "headaches, dizziness, hypersensitivity to light, agitation and nausea". These symptoms disappeared quickly in some cases, but for the others, they worsened and the soldiers were evacuated.
"No serious injuries," says Trump.
During the night of January 7-8, Tehran launched missiles against the bases of Ain al-Assad (west) and Erbil (north), where some of the 5,200 American soldiers are stationed, in retaliation for the elimination of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
"No American was injured in the attacks last night," US President Donald Trump said shortly afterwards in a televised speech. But last week, the Pentagon admitted that a dozen soldiers were actually suffering from a concussion.
Asked about it in Davos, Donald Trump, who seeks to avoid any military escalation with Tehran, again minimized the impact of the Iranian strikes on Wednesday. "I heard they had a headache," he said. "I don't consider it serious injury." The Pentagon spokesman explained the new assessment on Friday by the fact that these symptoms often take several days to appear.
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