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US army to award Purple Hearts to soldiers injured in Iran missile attack

Thursday, 09 December 2021 2:21 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 09 December 2021 2:21 AM ]

This still image from an Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting video shot on January 8, 2020, shows rockets launched from Iran against the US military base in Ain al-Assad in Iraq.

The US army has decided to award the Purple Heart to 39 soldiers who it said were injured during Iran’s missile attack on Ain al-Asad Airbase in Iraq in January 2020.

The announcement was made by a spokesman of the Army's Human Resources Command on Wednesday after a CBS investigation found that these soldiers had not been recognized as qualified for the award.

On January 8, 2020, shortly after midnight, five days after the US assassinated Iran’s celebrated anti-terror commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani and deputy head of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha'abi Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis near Baghdad airport, at least a dozen ballistic missiles with warheads weighing more than 1,000 pounds rained on the airbase in western Anbar province which stationed thousands of American troops.

"It rocked everything," Platoon Sergeant Daine Kvasager, who was present at the airbase on that night, said on Tuesday. "The whole earth shook."

CBS News: US troops still dealing with mental trauma 18 months after Ain al-Asad attack

The attack on Ain al-Asad Airbase in Jan. 2020 was the largest ballistic missile attack against US troops and in retaliation for the assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani

Many observers consider the attack as the largest ballistic missile attack against American troops anywhere in the world in modern history.

At that time, then-US President Donald Trump dismissed the reports about the casualties, falsely claiming that no Americans had been harmed in the attack.

The Pentagon also attempted to downplay the reports of brain injuries sustained by US troops in the attack but later admitted that more than 100 troops had been diagnosed with severe traumatic brain injuries.

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