New Delhi:Four of six crew members on the United States Air Force KC-135 aircraft that crashed in western Iraq have died, the US' Central Command said in an X post Friday afternoon. Efforts to rescue the other two are ongoing, CENTCOM said.

CENTCOM said the reasons remain "under investigation", though it ruled out hostile or friendly fire as causes. The identities of the deceased soldiers have been withheld for 24 hours after their family have been notified, CENTCOM concluded.

The US military confirmed Thursday that a KC-135 - used to refuel other aircraft mid-air - had crashed while a second (unspecified) plane involved in the incident landed safely.

Iran state media has claimed a resistance group in neighbouring Iraq - the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions - shot down the plane with a missile.Washington firmly denied the claim and said no hostile fire had been reported.

The KC-135 that went down was the fourth military aircraft the US has lost in the Iran war; three F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down by a Kuwaiti F-18 on March 2 in an 'accident'.

An unnamed American official told The Wall Street Journal that the pilot of the F-18 had mistakenly launched three missiles towards the three jets, which went down over Kuwait.

Source:Ndtv