11 U.S. troops flown to medical centers after Iran strike
WASHINGTON — Eleven U.S. troops were flown out of Iraq for evaluation of concussion-like symptoms in the days following an Iranian missile strike that President Donald Trump had said caused no harm to American forces, officials said Friday.
The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, said Defense Secretary Mark Esper did not know of the injuries until he was told Thursday that the 11 troops had been sent for evaluation at U.S. medical facilities — eight in Germany and three in Kuwait. Hoffman said the notification to Esper was in line with military procedures, which he said do not require notification of service member casualties to the Pentagon unless they involve the loss of life, limb or eyesight.
As recently as Tuesday night, Trump said he had been told no American had been harmed in the Iranian missile strike on Jan. 8.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was in Washington Friday to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, told reporters that Iranian leaders told him this week that their missile attack was sufficient for now as retaliation for the U.S. killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
“They do not want to fight. They do not want war,” Qureshi told a news conference.
Iran leader blasts ‘American clowns’
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lashed out at Western countries as he led Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time in eight years, dismissing “American clowns” who he said pretend to support the Iranian nation but want to stick their “poisoned dagger” into its back and killed Soleimani with a “cowardly” hit.
Trump later tweeted a sharp response to Khamenei: “The so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe. Their economy is crashing, and their people are suffering. He should be very careful with his words!”
$25,000 for plane victims’ families
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday his government will give Canadian $25,000 ($19,122) to families of each of the 57 citizens and 29 permanent residents of Canada who died in the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner in Iran on Jan. 8. Trudeau said he still expects Iran to compensate the families.