All six crew members aboard a United States Air Force KC-135 refueling tanker died after the aircraft crashed in western Iraq on Friday, March 13, 2026. U.S. Central Command confirmed the fatalities following an initial search and rescue operation near the Iraqi-Jordanian border.
The U.S. military explicitly ruled out hostile or friendly fire as the cause of the crash, directly contradicting claims from an Iran-backed Islamic resistance group that stated it shot down the aircraft with a missile. The incident occurred in friendly airspace near Turaibil amid escalating regional hostilities and recent G7 diplomatic discussions regarding Iran.
A second aircraft, identified as a KC-135R/T variant, was involved in the mid-air incident. That aircraft declared an in-flight emergency and subsequently landed safely at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport with a partially sheared-off vertical stabilizer.
This crash marks the fourth U.S. military aircraft lost since Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, began on February 28, 2026. The previous three aircraft were F-15E Strike Eagles lost in a friendly fire incident over Kuwait.
The loss of the KC-135 crew brings the total number of U.S. service members killed during the ongoing conflict with Iran to 11. The identities of the six deceased personnel are being withheld for 24 hours while their families are notified.
The U.S. military stated that the exact circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation.