All 6 crew members killed as US Air Force refueling plane crashes in Iraq, military says
All 6 crew members killed as US Air Force refueling plane crashes in Iraq, military says
Six crew members were killed when a US Air Force refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq on Thursday, US Central Command announced Friday morning.
The Tampa, Fla.-based command initially confirmed that four were killed when the KC-135 Stratotanker went down in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury.
“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
Two planes were involved in the crash. The second aircraft, also a KC-135, landed safely.
The US military was withholding the identities of the crew members until 24 hours after their families were notified.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions, claimed responsibility for taking down the aircraft Thursday evening.
The group said in a statement that it had shot down the military refueling tanker “in defense of our country’s sovereignty and airspace.”
A total of 13 American service members have been killed since combat operations began Feb. 28.
Six US Army Reserve members were killed when Iran launched a drone strike on a US base in Kuwait on Feb. 28.
They were identified as Nicole Amor, 39, Cody Khork, 35, Declan Coady, 20, Robert Marzan, 54, Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, and Noah Tietjens, 42.
A seventh service member, Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, of the Army’s elite 1st Space Brigade, succumbed to his injuries after being wounded in an Iranian retaliatory strike at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Operation Epic Fury entered its 14th day on Friday, with US officials promising the most intense strikes yet against the Islamic Republic.
President Trump claimed the war is going well during a phone call with world leaders Wednesday, Axios reported.
“I got rid of a cancer that was threatening us all,” Trump told his fellow leaders of the Group of Seven nations, according to the outlet.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was appointed earlier this week to fill his father’s role, but there have been no signs of the newly promoted leader.
“Nobody knows who is the leader,” Trump reportedly told world leaders, “so there is no one that can announce surrender.”
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