The United States has suffered a further six casualties in the war against Iran after today confirming the death of all crew members travelling on board a military refuelling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq.

With these, the Pentagon has now admitted to 13 losses related to Operation Epic Fury, underway by the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic since the early hours of 28 February.

Speaking on the matter this Friday at a press conference at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth noted: «War is hell. War is chaos. And, as we saw yesterday with the tragic accident of our KC-135 tanker aircraft, terrible things can happen.»

For his part, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, explained that the incident «occurred over friendly territory in western Iraq while the crew was on a combat mission (…).»

«All six crew members aboard a military refuelling aircraft that crashed Thursday in western Iraq were killed,» Central Command (Centcom) confirmed in a statement, updating the previous figure of four, and added that «the circumstances of the incident are under investigation.»

However, Centcom stressed, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump stated this Friday during a telephone interview that he will know when the war with Iran is over when he feels it «in his bones.»

But in the very same remarks to Fox Radio, he indicated that he did not believe «it will be long before it ends.» His opinions add to a series of contradictory signals about how long a conflict that the majority of the US population here opposes might last.

The loss of the tanker aircraft is the fourth suffered by the Pentagon in the context of the war with Iran. Shortly after the start of the conflict, three F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down over Kuwait in a friendly fire incident, but the six crew members ejected.