US troops were hurt in Iran missile attack

Baghdad, Jan 17 (IANS) Several US troops were injured in the January 8 Iranian missile attack on of the two American bases in Iraq, despite the Pentagon initially saying that no service member was hurt, it was reported on Friday.On January 8, Iran had launched tens of surface-to-surface missiles on the two Iraqi military bases hosting US military and coalition personnel at Ayn al Asad and Erbil, which was in retaliation to the January 3 killing of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani in an American drone attack near the Baghdad airport.In a statement issued here on Friday, the US-led coalition fighting the IS in Iraq and Syria said that while no US trooper was killed during the attack in Ayn al Asad, "several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed".The injured were shifted to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and were expected to return to service once they were deemed fit, the statement added.Shortly after the missile attack, President Donald Trump had tweeted that "all is well", adding "we have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far".Iran had vowed "severe revenge" over the death Soleimani, who was the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force.
--IANS ksk/