Washington Covering Up Deaths of US Soldiers From Iran's Attack on Iraq Bases - IRGC

TEHRAN (Sputnik) - Washington is intentionally hiding the fact that US troops died during Iran’s attack on its military in Iraq, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Ramezan Sharif said on Tuesday.

"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 Ein al-Assad," Sharif said at a rally in the eastern city of Birjand marking the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution's victory, as quoted by the Fars news agency.

Earlier in the day, the Pentagon said that at least 109 US troops had received traumatic brain injuries during Iran’s missile attack on a military base hosting US troops in Iraq in early January.

On January 8, Iran launched 16 missiles at the Erbil and Al Asad air bases in Iraq in response to a US airstrike that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani five days earlier.

Initially, the White House and Pentagon said that no one was hurt, but the latter was eventually forced to admit that there had been victims and proceeded to increase the count several times. The Pentagon explained that the symptoms of shell shock may not appear immediately and that initial assessments may differ from final diagnoses.