All six crew members onboard a US military aircraft that crashed in western Iraq were killed, the US military has said. The KC-135 refuelling plane went down on Thursday in an incident involving another aircraft, but officials confirmed it was not due to hostile or friendly fire.
The crash brings the number of American troops killed in the war on Iran to 13. Iraq's western desert, where the incident occurred, is a vast expanse of rocky plains that hosts bases of Iran-aligned Shia militia and has been the site of repeated Israeli and US airstrikes.
In a separate incident, a French soldier was killed in an attack in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday. It is the first French military death in the conflict. The pro-Iranian Ashab al-Kahf group warned that French interests would be targeted after the arrival of a French aircraft carrier.
The US has moved a large fleet of aircraft into the Middle East for operations against Iran and deployed specialist search and rescue units. US Central Command said rescue efforts were underway after the KC-135 went down, while a second aircraft involved in the accident landed safely.
This is the fourth US aircraft lost since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February. Three US fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwait air defences in early March, though all crew ejected safely. Thirteen US troops have been killed and up to 150 wounded in the conflict, while Iran's death toll exceeds 1,300, according to its UN ambassador.
