British officials said on Thursday that US troops were injured in a drone attack on a base in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, on Wednesday night, as the Pentagon has not been sharing information about all of the US casualties in the US-Israeli war against Iran.
According to The Telegraph, a base housing US and British troops was targeted by a swarm of drones, and two were shot down by British air defense forces, but others got through and struck the facility. The report said the drones that hit the base in Erbil were likely launched from Tehran, though Iran-aligned Shia militias also claimed a series of drone attacks against US assets in Iraq on Wednesday.
“Erbil and Baghdad were both struck a number of times last night with increasing coordination. We have personnel in Erbil who are currently helping with the defence of that base,” said Brig. Guy Foden, an officer at the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ), from where British overseas operations are overseen.
“Last night, they shot down two UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] coming at the camp. But a number of UAVs did impact on the camp,” Foden added. He said that several US troops were injured, while another British officer, Lt. Gen. Nick Perry, downplayed the US casualties, saying the injuries were “nothing too serious.”
Earlier this week, the Pentagon acknowledged that at least 140 US troops have been injured since the US and Israel launched the war, but the admission came after Reuters reported that as many as 150 US service members had been wounded. Before that, the Pentagon just acknowledged eight “severe” injuries and confirmed eight deaths, including seven US troops killed by Iranian attacks and one who died of an unspecified “medical emergency.”
On Wednesday, CBS News reported that a March 1 Iranian drone attack on a US operations center in Kuwait that killed six US troops was much worse than the Pentagon disclosed. As of Tuesday night, more than 30 US troops wounded in the attack were still in the hospital.
