The three F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets “were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses” during “active combat,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
“All six crew members were safely ejected, have been safely recovered and are in stable condition,” he added.
A statement from Kuwait’s Defense Ministry carried by the state news agency said the crews of the crashed plane were evacuated and taken to hospital and were in stable condition. He added that the response was carried out in coordination with US forces.
Kuwait intercepted hostile drones earlier on Monday, the third straight day of Iranian retaliatory strikes against neighboring Gulf states in response to joint US-Israeli strikes against the Islamic Republic.
Explosions also occurred Monday in the Gulf cities of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and Manama as Iran attacked America’s Gulf allies following the assassination of its supreme leader.
According to authorities, Iranian strikes have so far killed five people in the Gulf, including one person in Kuwait. The small oil-rich country has a large American military presence stemming from the 1990 Iraqi invasion, which was repelled by a U.S.-led coalition that aided the Kuwaiti military.
Smoke was seen rising from near the US embassy compound in Kuwait City, and a witness told Reuters that fire trucks and ambulances were seen in the area.
The embassy urged U.S. citizens to stay home, shelter in place and avoid coming to the embassy, warning of the “continuing threat of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks on Kuwait.”
“Take cover in your residence on the lowest available floor and away from windows,” it said on its website.
An online video verified by Reuters as taken in the Al Jahra area of Kuwait showed a military plane falling from the sky and a person parachuting in the same shot.
Iran’s state media cited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as saying that Iranian armed forces attacked a US plane that crashed in Kuwait.
Tehran had said it would attack US bases in the region after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran early on Saturday. It has also affected a variety of civil and commercial areas in Gulf cities, widening the impact of the conflict on major regional aviation and trade centers and closing airspace in several regional centers.
Two workers were slightly injured by falling debris at Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, the Kuwait National Oil Company said in X.
No injuries were reported after air defenses intercepted most of the drones launched near the neighborhoods of Rumaithiya and Salwa, according to Kuwait’s director general of civil defense, quoted by the state news agency.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)
