At least 200 American troops wounded in Iran war, US military says | US military
At least 200 US soldiers were injured in the US-Israeli war against Iran, a US military spokesman said on Monday.
“Approximately 200 US troops have been injured since the beginning of Operation Epic Rage,” US Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins told the Guardian via email.
“The vast majority of these injuries were minor,” Hawkins said, adding that 180 soldiers have since returned to duty. He did not elaborate when asked follow-up questions about what injuries service members sustained or what caused them.
ABC News had previously reported, citing an unnamed US official, that injuries included burns, shrapnel wounds and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Hawkins had previously told the press that at least 10 military personnel were “seriously injured” out of 200 injured.
As of Monday, 13 soldiers have been killed in the US war with Iran. Last week, a US military refueling plane crashed in western Iraq, killing six crew members.
Six U.S. service personnel were killed when an Iranian drone struck an operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait, and a seventh U.S. service member injured in an attack on Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia also died.
More than 1,300 Iranians were killed, as well as hundreds of civilians in Lebanon and 15 people in Israel, the country’s UN ambassador said last week.
Donald Trump has made conflicting statements about the conflict so far; While he has previously called on Western allies to enter the war and protect the Strait of Hormuz for fear of a global oil disruption, he also suggested that the US should not make a military effort to protect the strait given that the country has “too much oil”.
