As It Turns Out, 11 Troops Were Hurt in Iran's Strike

After Iran fired missiles at two Iraqi bases with American troops, President Trump and Pentagon officials said the US had no casualties. As it turns out, 11 US service members are being treated for concussions, reports the New York Times. All have been transferred to military facilities in Kuwait and Germany. "As previously stated, while no US service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed," says the new Pentagon statement.

The development contradicts a statement made by Trump in the wake of Iran's retaliatory strikes in which he said that "no Americans were harmed in last night's attack by the Iranian regime." A senior defense official tells Defense One that some of the troops were still experiencing concussion-like symptoms a week after the attacks. The Pentagon says protocol is to screen all troops for traumatic brain injury after a blast, adding that the medical evacuations were made "out of an abundance of caution." (Iran's supreme leader called Trump a "clown" in his first Friday sermon in eight years.)