Four crew members killed after US refuelling plane crashes in Iraq

WASHINGTON — Four crew members have been confirmed dead when a refueling aircraft went down in western Iraq, the US Central Command has said.It said the incident was “not due to hostile fire” but an Iranian proxy group claimed responsibility. A second plane involved in the incident landed safely.Israeli media have published a photograph of the US refueling jet that was damaged in a mid-air incident involving another aircraft that crashed killing at least four crew members.The photograph, published by CNN affiliate Kan, showed a KC-135 on the tarmac at Ben Gurion airport in Israel with part of its tail fin missing.Markings on the plane identify it as coming from Beale Air Force Base in California, which hosts the Air Force Reserve Command’s 940th Air Refueling Wing.”The KC-135 usually has a crew of at least a pilot, a co-pilot and a boom operator responsible for controlling the refuelling arm of the aircraft.The Boeing-manufactured aircraft are capable of refuelling planes midair and typically play a major role in US military operations. They were used extensively in the first Gulf War to extend the range of fighter jets and bombers.Centcom said the incident occurred around 14:00 ET (19:00 GMT) on Thursday and that the circumstances of the crash were now under investigation.The US military command unit added that the identities of the personnel who had been killed were being withheld for 24 hours so their next of kin could be notified.Gen Dan Caine, chair of the US Joint Chiefs, told a news conference on Friday that the plane had crashed “while the crew was on a combat mission”.”We’re still treating this as an active rescue and recovery operation,” he said.US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth hailed the aircraft’s crew members as “American heroes”, stressing that their “sacrifice will only recommit us to the resolve of this mission”.Centcom earlier described the crash as happening over friendly airspace — but this is a region of Iraq where pro-Iranian militias operate. Iran’s military claimed on state TV that an allied group had targeted the plane with a missile.Thursday’s crash brings the official US military death toll in the US-Israel war with Iran, which began a fortnight ago, to 11.The US military has now lost at least four aircraft during the current war.Earlier this month, three F-15s were shot down in “an apparent friendly fire incident” over Kuwait, officials said. All six crew members were able to safely eject.Separately, Israel’s military said on Friday that it had launched a fresh “wide-scale wave of strikes” targeting Iranian infrastructure across Tehran.Explosions were later reported in and near the Iranian capital.France’s military announced on Friday that a drone had killed a French soldier, who it identified as Staff Sgt Arnaud Frion, and wounded six others at a Kurdish military base in northern Iraq yesterday.It said the soldiers had been stationed at the base to train Iraqi units.