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The United States has acknowledged that one of its aircraft has crashed in western Iraq, amid the country’s joint military offensive with Israel against Iran.
On Thursday, US Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East and parts of Asia, issued a brief statement announcing the aircraft’s crash, as well as rescue efforts.
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There was no immediate indication whether there were fatalities or survivors.
“U.S. Central Command is aware of the loss of a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft,” the statement said.
“The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing.”
The statement appeared to suggest that the crash involved two planes, possibly colliding or engaging in close manoeuvres. The second plane, it said, “landed safely”.
“This was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” the statement added.
Before the aircraft crash, the US military had reported that seven service members had died in the ongoing military campaign. Another 140 have been wounded overall, with Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell counting eight that face severe injuries.
Thursday’s crash is the latest to befall the US military since it began operations against Iran on February 28.
Already, three fighter jets were downed in an apparent friendly fire incident on March 1, just one day into the war.
Central Command explained that the jets, three F-15E Strike Eagles, were “mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defences” during an active combat situation, as Iran issued retaliatory attacks across much of the Middle East.
In that incident, the six aircraft personnel on board the fighter jets ejected safely and were recovered in stable condition.
Still, the war against Iran has been unpopular among the US public, with polls showing it is the first conflict in recent decades to have a negative approval rating from the outset.
A survey released on March 9, for instance, from Quinnipiac University found that 53 percent of voters opposed the military offensive against Iran.
An even higher proportion, 74 percent, rejected the idea of starting ground operations, with “boots on the ground” for US troops.
Those findings were echoed by other polls. The research firm Ipsos, for example, found that a majority of Americans surveyed, 43 percent, disapproved of the US strikes, dwarfing the 29 percent who approved. The rest expressed uncertainty over whether they supported the military offensive or not.
The war against Iran has been divisive even among supporters of President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly defended the military assault as necessary for US national security.
Prominent conservative personalities, like talk show host Tucker Carlson, have questioned that logic, though. Carlson even suggested Trump may have been misled by his advisers.
“He’s being shown polling that this war is like a 90-10 win for him,” Carlson said of Trump.
In an interview with ABC News, Carlson went so far as to call the war “absolutely disgusting and evil”.
Trump has responded by disavowing his critics, even those, like Carlson, who count themselves among his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement. “MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things,” Trump told ABC News.
But the president’s administration has struggled to make a public case for the war, citing an array of rationales for why military operations were necessary.
In one public appearance, Trump warned that a “nuclear war” would have broken out if Iran had not been confronted. In another, he argued that negotiations with Iran to scale back its nuclear programme had been fruitless, despite officials repeatedly suggesting they had been close to a deal.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that a US attack was launched because “we knew there was going to be an Israeli action” against Iran, though he later backtracked on those comments.
In addition to the seven dead US military members, an estimated 1,348 Iranians have been killed since the start of hostilities, as well as 15 Israelis. A further 17 people have died in nearby Gulf states, as violence spills across the region.
