Five or more American service members are feared dead after an American refueling aircraft crashed on Thursday. The U.S. military confirmed in a press release that two aircraft were involved in an incident, leading one to land safely while the other went down in western Iraq. The military said the incident happened in “friendly airspace” and was “not due to hostile or friendly fire.” A U.S. official told CNN that at least five members were aboard the U.S. KC-135 Stratotanker that went down. A typical KC-135 flight crew consists of three to four members, including the pilot, co-pilot, boom operator, and sometimes a navigator, according to an Air Force fact sheet. But aeromedical evacuation missions can also carry five additional medical personnel. The military release did not confirm the number of service members on board nor their conditions, but said more details would become available “as the situation develops.” Since President Donald Trump initiated a war on Iran on Feb. 28, eight American service members have died. Six U.S. servicemembers were killed after a retaliatory Iranian drone strike hit a mobile operations center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, on March 1.
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