Iran Press/America: The US Reps. Bill Pascrell, Jr. and Don Bacon (R-NE-02), the co-chairs of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, wrote to the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense continuing to seek answers on the extent of the US troop injuries from a January 8, 2020, Iranian attack on Al-Asad airbase in Iraq.
Since the attack, the Pentagon has publicly revised the number of troops who sustained a traumatic brain injury at least five times.
"Congress and the American public must know if the Department of Defense has been accurate and fully transparent in its reporting. Additionally, we must ensure that our service members are properly screening for blast injuries and concussions," Reps. Pascrell and Bacon write.
Effects of traumatic brain injury can be short-term or long-term and include impaired thinking or memory, movement, vision or hearing, or emotional functioning, such as personality changes or depression. Currently, between 3.2 million and 5.3 million people, including civilians, veterans, and service members, live with a TBI-related disability in the United States.
"Brain injuries are serious and can often be life-altering. Working in concert with Congress, the Department of Defense has been right to change its policies and make the investments to treat concussions and traumatic brain injuries with the gravity warranted. We cannot and must not go backward. It is critical that the Department of Defense treats brain injury with the commitment it deserves while being truthful to Congress and to the American public about injuries sustained in attacks on the US service members," the members’ letter concludes.
In the early hours of January 8, the IRGC's aerospace unit launched a successful attack against US forces in Ain al-Assad airbase in western Iraq and another in Erbil, in the north of the country.
The attack came in response to a US terrorist drone strike days earlier that martyred one of Iran's top Generals, the former Commander of IRGC's elite Quds Force, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei described the attack as a “slap in the face” and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called it a "proportionate measure" which came "in self-defense".
305/
