EXCLUSIVE-More than 100 U.S. troops diagnosed with brain injuries from Iran attack- officials
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By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. military is preparing to report a more than 50 percent jump in the number of cases of traumatic brain injury stemming from Iran's missile attack on a base in Iraq last month, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an announcement, said there were over 100 cases of TBI, up from the 64 previously reported last month.
The Pentagon declined to comment, but in the past had said to expect an increase in numbers in the weeks after the attack because symptoms can take time to manifest and troops can sometimes take longer to report them.
No U.S. troops were killed or faced immediate bodily injury when Iran fired missiles at the Ain al-Asad base in Iraq in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad airport on Jan. 3.
Pentagon officials have repeatedly said there has been no effort to minimize or delay information on concussive injuries. But the disclosures following Tehran's attack has renewed questions over the U.S. military's policy regarding how it internally reports suspected brain injuries and whether they are treated publicly with the same urgency as loss of limb or life.
President Donald Trump appeared to play down the brain injuries last month, saying he "heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things" following the attack, prompting criticism from lawmakers and a U.S. veterans group.
Since 2000, about 408,000 service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, according to Pentagon data. (Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, Editing by Franklin Paul and Dan Grebler)
