An official of the the United States Pentagon said there were no casualties recorded on the side of its troops in Iraq, after missile hits by Iran on Wednesday on air bases at Al Asad and Erbil used in conjunction with Iraqi troops.
This denial debunked Iranian claims that its missiles killed 80 US military personnel and wounded 200 others.
With no Americans killed, expectations of an immediate escalation in the oil-exporting region appeared to recede.
Though retribution had been expected for the deadly drone strike, Iraq said it had received verbal notice from the Iranians prior to the strikes.
A U.S. official said the Iranians deliberately aimed to miss the Americans.
This may have informed President Donald Trump’s cryptic tweet early on Wednesday: ‘So far so good, all is well”.
He promised to make a statement later today. But he has not, since 11 hours ago, after his last tweet.
Meanwhile, airlines are not taking chances that the conflict will not snowball into more ciolence and missile strikes as they changed routes to avoid the conflict zone.
