Four of the six crew members aboard the U.S. KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft that went down in western Iraq on Thursday have been confirmed dead, U.S. Central Command officials have said.
This brings the number of U.S. service members killed in the conflict to 11.
Rescue efforts are continuing, and the circumstances of the incident are under investigation, the officials said, although the aircraft’s loss was not due to either hostile or friendly fire.
Officials believe that a collision in midair may have caused the crash, The New York Times reported.
The identities of the service members are currently being withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been informed.
It was earlier reported that the plane went down following an “incident” involving another U.S. plane at approximately 2 p.m. ET Thursday.
open image in galleryThe first plane crashed near Turaibil, a largely isolated desert, on the Iraqi-Jordanian border, an Iraqi intelligence source told CBS News.
The second safely executed an emergency landing at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv in Israel, Centcom said.
“The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury,” it said in its earlier statement, referring to the joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign against Iran that began on February 28.
Citing people familiar with the situation, The Washington Post reported that the second plane was also a KC-135.
The Boeing planes involved are capable of refuelling other aircraft in mid-air and have been used extensively in U.S. military operations, notably during the first Gulf war, aiding in extending the range of fighter jets and bombers.
KC-135s, which were first built for the military in the 1950s, typically have a crew consisting of at least a pilot, co-pilot and a boom operator, who is responsible for controlling its refuelling arm.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of armed factions backed by Iran, has said that it was responsible for downing the aircraft.
The group said in a statement it had shot down the aircraft “in defence of our country’s sovereignty and airspace”.
open image in galleryBoth President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have warned that American deaths in the campaign are inevitable, with the president describing the prospect in a social media video as “the way it is,” drawing fresh criticism.
On Saturday, Trump observed the dignified transfer of the first six soldiers killed at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, along with Vice President JD Vance, First Lady Melania Trump, and members of his cabinet.
Hegseth told 60 Minutes last weekend: “Things like this don’t happen without casualties. There will be more casualties.
“And no one is – I mean, especially our generation knows what it’s like to see Americans come home in caskets… But that doesn’t weaken us one bit. It stiffens our spine and our resolve to say this is a fight we will finish.”
Earlier in the conflict, three American F-15s were shot down in “an apparent friendly fire incident” over Kuwait, officials said, although, in that instance, all six crew members aboard were able to safely eject.
