WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th March, 2020) The 2,500 US Army paratroopers that were hurriedly dispatched to the middle East in just days after Christmas remain in limbo at bases in Kuwait, separated from families indefinitely due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, stars and Stripes reported on Friday.
Soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team had just days to say goodbye to loved ones before they were sent to bolster security in US Central Command after a rocket attack killed an American contractor in Iraq and retaliatory US strikes led Iraqi Shia militias to storm the US Embassy in Baghdad.
Though about 800 of the troops returned to the United States in February, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced widespread restrictions on civilian and military movement around the world, the rest remain in Kuwait without clear answers about when they will be sent home or why they are still deployed, the report said.
Soldiers told the publication they expect to hear next week on plans for their return, but like other forces returning from deployments to Afghanistan, they expect to be quarantined for two weeks after they arrive due to the pandemic.
