The US Central Command has said that four soldiers died after a KC-135 refuelling aircraft crashed in Iraq in an apparent accident involving another tanker. Rescue efforts for the other two crew members are ongoing, it said. The deaths of the crew members bring the total of American service members killed in the war with Iran to 11.

“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” the military body stressed.“The identities of the service members are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified,” it said.

On Thursday, CENTCOM said in a statement: “The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing. Two aircraft were involved in the incident. One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely.”The second tanker involved in the incident landed at Ben Gurion Airport earlier in the evening. The aircraft had sent a “squawk code” of 7700, an international emergency signal, according to flight tracking data.

US Air Force refueling aircraft are seen parked on the tarmac of the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on February 25, 2026. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)KC-135s, which have been in operation for more than 60 years, generally have a crew of three — a pilot, a co-pilot and a third person who operates the boom used to refuel other aircraft, according to the US Air Force. But some KC-135 missions require a navigator, and the aircraft can carry up to 37 passengers, an Air Force factsheet said.

The tanker is the fourth publicly acknowledged aircraft to crash as part of the US military’s operations against Iran. Last week, the military confirmed that three American fighter jets were mistakenly downed by friendly Kuwaiti fire.All six crew members safely ejected from the F-15E Strike Eagles and were in stable condition after being recovered, the US said.

Seven American troops have been killed in combat during the Iran war so far. Six of the service members were killed when an Iranian drone struck an operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait. The seventh died after being wounded during an attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

About 140 US service members have been wounded, including eight severely, the Pentagon said earlier this week

Times of Israel