Rescue efforts were underway Friday as the U.S. military attempted to find and extract the crew of a military refueling plane that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday.
It was unclear whether the crew of the KC-135 aircraft had been injured in the incident, which U.S. Central Command said involved another aircraft but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire. At least five crew members were reportedly on board.
Iraq’s western desert is a vast expanse of largely empty rocky plains, but it is also where many Iran-aligned Shiite militias have bases and has been the scene of repeated Israeli and US airstrikes.
Separately, a French soldier was killed in an attack in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday. It is the first death of a French soldier in the war.
Since the joint US-Israeli offensive in Iran last month plunged the Middle East into war, multiple attacks attributed to pro-Iran factions have targeted the region where foreign forces are based as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.
The pro-Iran group Ashab Alkahf in Iraq warned on its Telegram page that French interests “in Iraq and the region” would be “under targeted fire” after the arrival of a French aircraft carrier.
The United States has sent a huge fleet of aircraft to the Middle East to participate in operations against Iran and has deployed specialized search and rescue units to rescue downed airmen.
In a statement, US Central Command said it was carrying out rescue efforts after the plane went down. A second plane involved in the reported accident landed safely.
“The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing,” the statement said, using the name of the US operation against Iran.
It is the fourth American plane lost since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28. Earlier this month, three US Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down in a friendly fire incident by Kuwait’s air defenses. All crew members on those planes were safely ejected.
Seven American soldiers have died in the conflict, while Up to 150 American soldiers have been injured. The death toll in Iran exceeds 1,300, according to the country’s ambassador to the UN.
Both Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have warned that the war with Iran will likely claim more American lives before it ends.
Six of the fallen servicemen were killed when an Iranian drone attacked an operations center in a civilian port in Kuwait. They were in the Army Reserve and worked in logistics, keeping troops supplied with food and equipment.
The seventh U.S. service member died after being wounded during a March 1 attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.
On Thursday, Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, vowed to avenge Iranian casualties in the conflict, according to a statement read by a state television host.
Khamenei himself was wounded in an Israeli attack early in the war, according to some Iranian officials and state television, and his father and other relatives were killed.
Iran’s Fars news agency said US and Israeli strikes hit parts of Tehran on Friday, adding that houses shook from the explosions.
The Israeli military said Iran fired a new barrage of missiles toward Israel overnight. Emergency services reported that two people were injured in the north of the country.
Israel continued attacking Beirut early Friday while threatening to expand its operations and seize territory in Lebanon if the militant group Hezbollah did not stop its attacks. Hundreds of people have been killed by the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah and around a million have been displaced.
