Top updates: All six crew members killed after US refuelling aircraft crashes in Iraq

All six members of the crew onboard a United States aerial refuelling aircraft were killed after it crashed in western Iraq, the US military said on Friday.

The announcement came hours after the US Central Command said that four of the six members had died and that rescue efforts had continued. The plane had crashed during a combat mission in the early hours of Friday amid the West Asia conflict.

“Two aircraft were involved in the incident,” the US military said earlier on Friday. “One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely.”

It added that while the circumstances of the incident are under investigation, the incident “was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire”.

Here are more top updates from the conflict in West Asia:

• The bodies of 84 Iranian sailors who were killed when the warship IRIS Dena was torpedoed by a United States submarine near Sri Lanka on March 4 are being repatriated to Iran by a chartered aircraft, foreign ministry spokesperson Thushara Rodrigo told AFP on Friday. “The 32 sailors who were rescued by our navy will remain in Sri Lanka,” he added.
• Since February 28, more than 1,200 persons have been killed in Iran, AFP reported on Friday, quoting the country’s health ministry. The number includes...

  Read more