A US military plane crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, with American forces launching a rescue mission to locate the crew.
Two KC-135 aircraft were involved in an “incident” during Operation Epic Fury in friendly airspace, according to the US military.
One of the aircraft landed safely back in Tel Aviv on Thursday night, missing part of its tail fin, but the other one was yet to be recovered.
Six crew members were thought to have been on board the refuelling plane when it went down near Turaibil, along the Iraqi-Jordanian border.
The US had still not issued an update on the status of the crew by Friday morning, or whether the wreckage had been found.
Iranian state television claimed that an allied Iraqi group had hit the tanker with a missile, killing its crew.
However, US officials insisted that the plane “went down in friendly airspace” and was not a result of hostile fire.
A US Air Force Boeing KC-135 refuelling tanker is seen at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv – Shutterstock
In a statement, it said: “US Central Command is aware of the loss of a US KC-135 refuelling aircraft. 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.
“This was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”
Islamic Resistance, based in Iraq but backed by Iran, claimed responsibility for the crash, saying it had acted “in defence of our country’s sovereignty and airspace”.
The KC-135 became at least the fourth US military aircraft lost during the war with Iran after three F-15s were shot down by friendly fire over Kuwait.
Kuwaiti forces mistakenly downed the three American F-15E fighters early in the conflict, but all six crew members were able to eject.
Since the war began on Feb 28, seven US servicemen have been killed and more than 140 injured.
On Thursday night, Emmanuel Macron announced that a French soldier was killed in a drone attack on Iraq’s Erbil region. Several others were injured.
The French president named Arnaud Frion, a chief warrant officer, as the deceased and described the attacks by Islamic State as “unacceptable”.
“Their presence in Iraq is part of the strict framework of the fight against terrorism,” he wrote on social media. “The war in Iran cannot justify such attacks.”
Operation Epic Fury, the name given to Donald Trump’s US-led airstrikes in Iran, was “the largest regional concentration of American military firepower in a generation”, the central command previously said.
The conflict has killed more than a thousand people in Iran, including a reported 175 in a strike on a primary school on the first day of the war. A preliminary report suggested that the strike was mistakenly conducted by the US, using outdated targeting data.
Retaliatory strikes by Tehran have so far killed seven US troops in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Donald Trump’s US-led airstrikes in Iran have killed more than a thousand people – Jim Watson/AFP
The Pentagon said earlier this week that around 140 service members had been injured in the conflict, including eight who have been “severely injured”.
“The vast majority of these injuries have been minor, and 108 service members have already returned to duty,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told PBS.
The plance crash came amid growing concern about the costs of Mr Trump’s war with Iran.
As well as the deaths and injuries, the conflict has cost the US billions, including $5bn (£3.7bn) in munitions alone, PBS reported.
“I am left with more questions than answers, especially about the cost of the war,” Richard Blumenthal, the Democrat senator, said following an official classified briefing on the conflict.
Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator, said he was ‘left with more questions than answers’ after a briefing on the war – Kylie Cooper/Reuters
It has also caused a global panic in the oil market, sending energy prices soaring.
Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world’s supply of oil flows.
Three tankers in the Gulf were struck by Iranian drone ships last night, causing oil prices to climb even higher on Thursday.
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, pledged to keep the strait closed as a “tool to pressure the enemy”.
Goldman Sachs said last week oil prices could overtake previous highs from 2008 and 2022 if the strait remained closed for the rest of the month.
Rising energy costs and deaths among US servicemen will probably be unpopular with American voters, who are set to go to the polls in November for the midterm elections.
It will become a major talking point for Democrats on the campaign trail, despite Mr Trump promising that the war will end soon and oil prices will come down.
“The American people deserve to know much more than this administration has told them about the cost of the war, the danger to our sons and daughters in uniform, and the potential for further escalation,” Mr Blumenthal said.