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| US Military Personnel |
The Associated Press reported that the official U.S. military death toll in the war with Iran has risen to 14, following the death of a U.S. Navy pilot in a helicopter crash in the Arabian Sea in early July.
The agency said the number of injured soldiers had exceeded 400 by Monday, and according to Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the US Central Command, the vast majority of them suffered traumatic brain injuries.
The Navy initially described the crash, which occurred on July 1, as a forced landing, stating that "there is no indication that the emergency was caused by hostile action." The three other crew members aboard the helicopter were rescued shortly after the incident.
The Pentagon's war casualty count recorded one non-hostile death in July, the first such death since 13 service members were killed in separate incidents in March, at the start of the war.
The total number of infected military personnel reached 414, including a member of the US Air Force whose case was added to the list on Monday, according to the US agency.
The Associated Press confirmed that traumatic brain injuries have become an increasingly serious and persistent problem among combat troops, particularly those exposed to missile strikes and explosions in their vicinity.
She noted that this injury – along with post-traumatic stress disorder – has become one of the most prominent injuries characteristic of veterans in the post-9/11 era, but its impact on troops, particularly in the long term, is still not sufficiently understood.
When asked on Monday for the latest figures on soldiers seriously wounded, Major Emma Thompson, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command, said she had no updates.
Thompson reiterated that the "vast majority" of those injured had returned to duty. She did not specify how many service members sustained injuries requiring evacuation from the area.
