DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military says all six airmen aboard a refueling aircraft that went down in Iraq are dead. The announcement was made Friday. The military says the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.
The U.S. military confirmed the deaths of four crew members earlier, but had been searching for two of the Americans aboard the KC-135 refueling plane that went down in Iraq Thursday.
U.S. Central Command said that the crash wasn’t related to friendly or hostile fire, and that two aircraft were involved, including one that landed safely. The KC-135 is the fourth publicly acknowledged aircraft to crash as part of the U.S. military’s operations against Iran. Last week, three American fighter jets were mistakenly downed by friendly Kuwaiti fire.
The deaths bring to 13 the total number of U.S. service members killed in the Middle East since the Iran war began.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that a French soldier was killed in an attack targeting Irbil in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region. France earlier said that six soldiers had been hurt in a drone strike in Irbil, where French troops are deployed as part of a multinational mission supporting Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State group.
By Jon Gambrell, David Rising and Mike Corder
