A rescue mission is underway after a US military refuelling aircraft crashed in Iraq, US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said.
CENTCOM said the KC-135 refuelling aircraft went down in western Iraq during Operation Epic Fury after an “incident” involving another US aircraft.
They said the incident was “not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”
A second aircraft was damaged but landed safely. According to flight tracking service FlightRadar24 a KC-135 tanker declared an emergency before landing safely in Tel Aviv Thursday evening.
It comes as US president Donald Trump said the situation in Iran is “moving along very rapidly”.
He added: “Our military is unsurpassed, there’s never been anything like it, nobody’s ever seen anything like it.
“They really are a nation of terror and hate, and they’re paying a big price right now.”
Tehran has warned it will not back down despite the heavy damage sustained in Tehran and across the country.
On Thursday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned it will set the region’s oil and gas “on fire” if there are attacks on its energy infrastructure, according to a report in CNN.
“In the event of such aggression, all the region’s oil and gas infrastructure in which the United States and its Western allies have a vested interest will be set on fire and destroyed,” the group said.
Earlier, Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, vowed that Tehran will “not relent until making you sorry for this grave miscalculation”, addressing the US president.
More to follow…
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