{"id":43965,"date":"2026-03-13T09:51:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T04:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=43965"},"modified":"2026-03-13T09:51:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T04:06:59","slug":"rescue-effort-under-way-as-us-military-refueling-plane-crashes-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/rescue-effort-under-way-as-us-military-refueling-plane-crashes-in-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescue effort under way as US military refueling plane crashes in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A US military refuelling aircraft crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, in an incident US Central Command said involved another aircraft but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear if there were casualties. A US official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the developing situation, said the KC-135 aircraft that crashed had at least five crew members aboard.<\/p>\n

The US has surged a large number of aircraft into the Middle East to take part in operations against Iran.<\/p>\n

Top Iranian nuclear scientists killed, Israel says \u2013 as it happened
\nRead more
\nIn a statement, US Central Command said it was carrying out rescue efforts after the aircraft went down. The second aircraft landed safely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing,\u201d the statement said, using the name of the US operation against Iran.<\/p>\n

This is the fourth US aircraft downed since the US and Israel started carrying out strikes against Iran on 28 February. Earlier this month, three US air force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down in a friendly fire incident by Kuwait air defenses. All crew members in those jets ejected safely.<\/p>\n

Seven US troops have been killed in the conflict in the US-Israeli war on Iran, while Reuters reported on Tuesday that as many as 150 US troops have been wounded. The death toll in Iran is more than 1,300, according to the country\u2019s UN ambassador.<\/p>\n

Both Donald Trump and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have warned that the Iran war would probably claim more American lives before it ends.<\/p>\n

Six of the fallen service members were killed when an Iranian drone struck an operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait. They were in the Army Reserve and worked in logistics, keeping troops supplied with food and equipment.<\/p>\n

The seventh American service member died after being wounded during a 1 March attack on the Prince Sultan airbase, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

In 1936, John Scott, son of the late Guardian owner and legendary editor CP Scott, did something unheard of for a media heir: he gave up his stake for the greater good.<\/p>\n

After inheriting the newspaper, Scott renounced all financial benefit \u2013 bar his salary \u2013 in the Guardian (worth \u00a31m at the time and around \u00a362m today) and passed ownership over to the newly formed Scott Trust. The Trust would evolve to have one key mission: to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity.<\/p>\n

That means the Guardian can\u2019t be bought. Not by private equity, not by a conglomerate, and definitely not by a billionaire looking for a political mouthpiece. So here are three good reasons to make the choice to support us today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A US military refuelling aircraft crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, in an incident US Central Command said involved another aircraft but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear if there were casualties. A US official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43967,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43965\/revisions\/43967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}