All six crew members aboard a US military KC-135 refuelling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday have been confirmed dead, the US military announced on Friday, adding to the mounting American casualties in the ongoing conflict with Iran. The incident, which occurred during what the Pentagon has named "Operation Epic Fury," has become the subject of sharply conflicting accounts, with US Central Command (CENTCOM) insisting the crash was an accident while an umbrella group of Iraqi factions claims responsibility for shooting the aircraft down.
According to CENTCOM, the KC-135 Stratotanker was involved in an incident with another aircraft of the same type in friendly airspace over western Iraq. The second aircraft landed safely, while the crashed plane went down with all six service members on board. In a statement released Friday, the military confirmed the death of the entire crew but maintained that "the circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire". The KC-135, built by Boeing in the 1950s and 1960s, serves as the backbone of the US military's air refuelling fleet and is critical for sustaining long-range combat missions.
Hours after the crash, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft . In a statement, the group said it had shot down the KC-135 "in defence of our country's sovereignty and airspace". Iranian state television amplified these claims, citing a spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya military headquarters affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who said the aircraft was struck by missiles fired by "resistance factions," causing it to crash and killing all crew members. The spokesman asserted that the attack was a direct response to what Iran and its allies describe as violations of Iraqi sovereignty by US forces operating in the country.
The deaths of the six aircrew bring the total number of US service members killed since the outbreak of hostilities with Iran on February 28 to 13. The first seven US troops were killed when a drone slammed into a US military facility in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. Additionally, the Pentagon has confirmed that approximately 140 US service members have been wounded over the course of the conflict, with eight troops sustaining life-threatening injuries. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell stated that the vast majority of injuries have been minor, and 108 service members have already returned to duty. President Donald Trump and other senior officials have warned that the conflict will result in more US military deaths as Tehran continues to retaliate against US and Israeli strikes.
Thursday's KC-135 crash marks the fourth manned aircraft lost since Operation Epic Fury began in late February. Earlier this month, three F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down over Kuwait in what US officials described as "an apparent friendly fire incident" involving Kuwaiti F/A-18 aircraft. All six crew members from those aircraft were able to eject safely.
The crash comes as the US-Israeli war with Iran enters its fourteenth day, with no sign of de-escalation. Since February 28, the United States and Israel have conducted thousands of airstrikes targeting Iranian leadership, nuclear facilities, and missile installations. Iran has retaliated with waves of drones and missiles targeting American assets throughout the Gulf region, as well as strikes on Israel itself. The conflict has caused widespread death and destruction, with Iranian officials reporting at least 1,230 deaths in Iran alone and hundreds more killed in Lebanon, Israel, and Gulf countries hit by retaliatory strikes. In the UAE alone, 10 ballistic missiles and 26 drones struck on March 12, killing six people and injuring 131. The expanding conflict has disrupted global travel, rattled energy markets, and forced repeated airspace closures across the region.
As investigators work to determine the precise cause of the KC-135 crash, the competing narratives reflect the broader information war accompanying the military conflict. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have suggested that a midair collision may have caused the crash, noting that air-to-air refuelling missions, while regularly performed, remain challenging maneuvers, especially in adverse conditions. However, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq's claim of responsibility, amplified by Iranian state media, resonates with regional audiences and reinforces Tehran's narrative that its allies can strike American forces with impunity.