6 U.S. Service Members Killed In Plane Crash Over Iraq | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) – All six crew members aboard a U.S. army refueling plane that crashed in western Iraq are confirmed to have been killed, the U.S. army stated on Friday.

A U.S. army refueling plane crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, in an incident the army stated concerned one other plane however was not the results of hostile or pleasant fireplace.

The deaths add to the seven U.S. service members who’ve already been killed as a part of U.S. operations in opposition to Iran which started on February 28.

“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” an announcement from U.S. Central Command stated.

A U.S. official instructed Reuters that the second plane concerned within the crashwhich landed safely, was additionally a army refueling plane often known as the KC-135.

The United States has deployed a lot of plane into the Middle East to participate in operations in opposition to Iran and the incident highlights the danger of not simply operations, however of refueling plane within the air.

The KC-135, constructed by Boeing BA.N within the Fifties and early Sixties, has served because the spine of the U.S. army’s air refueling fleet and is important to permitting plane to hold out missions with out having to land.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions, claimed duty for downing the U.S. army refueling plane.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that as many as 150 U.S. troops have been wounded within the U.S.-Israeli battle on Iran. News of the crash comes the identical day two U.S. sailors had been injured after the USS Gerald Ford suffered a non-combat-related fireplace on board.

The first seven U.S. troops had been killed when a drone slammed right into a U.S. army facility in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait.

President Donald Trump and different senior officers have warned the Iran battle will end in extra U.S. army deaths as Tehran retaliates in opposition to U.S. and Israeli strikes.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Toby Chopra and Chizu Nomiyama)