Pentagon steers away from brain trauma diagnoses after Iranian strike
Donald Trump downplayed the injuries of US troops stemming from an Iranian missile strike.
More US troops were treated for concussion symptoms after a fusillade of Iranian missiles struck Iraqi bases housing coalition forces earlier this month, a top commander for the US-led mission to defeat the Islamic State (IS) said today.
But Maj. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, a deputy commander of the US-led mission to defeat IS in Iraq and Syria, insisted that the diagnosis of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, was likely premature after reports emerged last week that 11 American troops were evacuated to Kuwait and Germany.
“I know this question has gotten a lot of traction, [but] the diagnosis of TBI is probably an unfair characterization,” Grynkewich said. “The number of folks I would characterize it as being in the teens,” he said, but did not have a full count.
The Iranian barrage of ballistic missiles lasted “about an hour and a half,” Grynkewich said, but US troops at al-Asad and other Iraqi bases remained in bunkers for much longer, as commanders feared another assault with Katyusha rockets.
