Iranian Proxy Claims It Shot Down US KC-135 in Iraq; US Denies Hostile Fire

A U.S. KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq on March 12 during operations tied to the U.S.-led Operation Epic Fury, after an incident that involved two U.S. refueling aircraft.

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10tv

U.S. Central Command reported that one of the two aircraft went down while the other landed safely, and repeatedly said the loss was "not due to hostile or friendly fire," while rescue efforts were undertaken and the circumstances remained under investigation.

AeroTime

Iran-aligned groups quickly claimed responsibility and Tehran’s side issued starkly different accounts from U.S. officials:

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters and groups labelled as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq asserted they had targeted and downed the tanker and said the crew perished, while some outlets and analysts noted those claims were unverified publicly.

Anadolu Agency

Reports on fatalities and missing crew initially conflicted: several outlets first reported four dead and two missing or that not all crew outcomes were known,

“CENTCOM has stressed that this incident was not linked to hostile action”

AeroTime

while others later said U.S. Central Command confirmed all six crew members had died.

The differing counts and updates highlight the evolving nature of the reporting as rescue and notification efforts continued.

U.S. investigators were probing the cause; some U.S. officials and analysts pointed to a possible midair collision as a working theory,

while tracking data and images fed speculation about an emergency landing and damage to the second aircraft.

CBS News

CENTCOM and other U.S. statements continued to assert there was no evidence the loss was due to hostile or friendly fire as the inquiry proceeded.

The crash occurred amid intense operational pressure in the region: outlets repeatedly noted this was at least the fourth U.S. aircraft loss tied to Operation Epic Fury,

coming after a friendly-fire incident in which three U.S. F-15E fighters were downed by Kuwaiti forces, and it contributed to a rising U.S. casualty count tied to the wider Iran conflict.

CNN International

The KC-135’s long service life and age was also highlighted in coverage as a contextual factor in discussions about fleet reliability and mission risk.