CENTCOM says several US forces diagnosed with ‘traumatic brain injury’ in Syria attacks

“Our medical teams continue to assess and evaluate our troops for indications of [traumatic brain injury],” Col. Joe Buccino said.

The new cases bring the number of US personnel wounded in the attacks to a total of 25, including one US contractor who was killed at a facility in Hasakah, northeast Syria, on March 23 in an alleged drone attack that Washington attributed to Iran-backed resistance groups.

The US troops, whose presence in Syria is illegal under international law, carried out what they called “precision airstrikes” in eastern Syria on the same day.

“The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin stated in a statement, noting that the aggression was carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden.

Meantime, local sources pointed out that the target was not an Iran-aligned military post as the US military claimed, but rather a rural development center and a grain center in Hrabash neighborhood, near Dayr al-Zawr military airport.

On March 24, more than 20 rockets are reportedly fired against two illegal American outposts based near the al-Omar oilfield and the Koniko gas field in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr Province.

One week after the attacks on US illegal bases, the Pentagon announced that six service members had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, also cautioning the number may grow since symptoms develop over time.

“All personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injury. So these additional injuries were identified during post-attack medical screenings,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told a news briefing on March 30.

Mild traumatic brain injuries can lead to changes in personality and balance issues as well as symptoms such as dizziness, confusion, headaches, and irritability.

Meanwhile, some observers believe the US military does not openly acknowledges when it suffer casualties in the occupied territories due to retaliatory attacks by resistance fighters and rather, it uses the term “brain injuries” for fallen soldiers.

They say the term “brain injuries” reflects the number of dead, which the US hesitates to formally announce.

The US has for long employed the alleged “Daesh threat” as a pretext to continue its illegal occupation of northeastern Syrian territories.

US occupation forces frequently loot oil from Syrian gas fields and transport them to other occupation bases in Iraq via illegal crossings.