A view of the Iranian attack on an Iraqi base where American soldiers were deployed. Picture: AFP/IRAN PRESS
Keltz, who said he had concussion symptoms for days, is among 109 soldiers diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries in the wake of last month’s attack, a figure that has steadily risen as more troops report symptoms and get medical screening. On January 22, Trump said that he “heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things”, prompting criticism from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers and a US veterans group that the president was underplaying the casualties from the attack.
“Those drone pilots, they’re the ones that took the brunt of the TBI cases,” said Garland, who as commander of Task Force Jazeera oversees more than 400 soldiers. Some US troops also suffered from anxiety-related symptoms after the attack, including sleeplessness and, in at least one case, a sustained high heart rate, according to interviews with soldiers and officials. However, they could not provide a specific number.
Keltz said he and a fellow soldier were already manning a tower when First Sergeant Larry Jackson came to them, explaining the intelligence and giving them their orders. “What I need you boys to do is to lie down on the ground when the impacts happen — and then I need you to jump right back up and man those guns,” Jackson said in an interview, recounting his instructions to Keltz and other soldiers at the base.
Such “silent” injuries take time to manifest, he said. Injury figures kept climbing in the weeks after the attack. What began as at least 11 cases grew to 34 about a week later. The brain injuries sustained in the Iranian missile attack are fundamentally different from those that have typically resulted from past attacks, brain-trauma specialists said. That’s because the al-Asad bombing was more intense than typical quick-hit, single-explosion attacks: the explosions came in waves and lasted more than an hour.
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