US Gov’t Reporting Death of Soldiers as Traumatic Brain Injury - IRGC Spox

By Staff, Agencies

Spokesman of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps [IRGC] Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif said that the Pentagon is trying to fool the Americans by reporting the death of its soldiers in the IRGC's retaliatory missile strikes on the US occupation base of Ain Al-Assad in western Iraq last month as traumatic brain injuries.

"The word dead in the US lexicon has been changed with traumatic brain injury and they conceal their damages and tolls of our attack against Ain al-Assad," General Sharif said in sarcastic remarks made during an address to participants in the rallies marking the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution's victory in the Eastern city of Birjand on Tuesday.

He said assassination of IRGC Quds Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani has been a grave mistake by the US with dire repercussions, adding that: "Stay assured that assassination of General Soleimani will make the US and ‘Israel’ leave the region."

General Sharif said Iran is so powerful in defense, military and security fields that the biggest world powers will not be able to threaten the country's national and geographical interests.

The US military on Monday disclosed a more than 50% jump in cases of traumatic brain injury stemming from Iran’s missile attack on the airbase in Iraq last month, with the number of service members diagnosed climbing to 109.

US President Donald Trump and the Pentagon at the time claimed no service members were killed or wounded, and they signaled that Washington was not looking for additional armed conflict with Tehran. Trump stated soon after the missile attack that “no Americans were harmed", and the United States suffered "no casualties", noting that "all of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases".

Later, it emerged that “several” were being treated for concussion symptoms.

Trump has consistently tried to minimize the injuries, stating that he had “heard [the injured soldiers] had headaches” but insisting “it is not very serious…relative to other injuries I have seen”.

The US administration also was criticized for playing down the severity of injuries. The Veterans of Foreign Wars later stated in a statement that it “expects an apology from the president to our service men and women for his misguided remarks”.