Live Updates: Plane crash brings US military deaths to 11 as Iran war nears two-week mark with no end in sight

At a Pentagon briefing Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked whether Iran was “placing new mines” in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We have no clear evidence of this,” he said.

American officials told News themezone Earlier this week, Iran could be preparing to deploy naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz in an effort to keep the sea route, which is critical to the global oil trade, paralyzed.

The military’s Central Command said Thursday that at least 30 Iranian minelayer vessels had been destroyed since the war began.

Asked for information on American casualties, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday that a “vast, vast majority” of service members wounded in the war had received medical treatment and returned to duty.

He said American forces had been wounded in places like Kuwait, where six were killed in an Iranian attack that hit a tactical operations center as well as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, adding that most were wounded in one-way attacks rather than an exchange of fire.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during the same briefing that the Pentagon was trying to “clarify those numbers…be clearer about it,” but that the “overwhelming majority” had suffered only minor injuries and had returned to duty.

“That number can be looked at a certain way, and our job is to add some fidelity to it,” Hegseth said.

The Iranian drone attack that killed six U.S. service members in Kuwait in the early hours of the war was more serious than previously revealed, News themezone learned earlier this week from multiple sources, leaving dozens of Americans with injuries including brain trauma, shrapnel wounds and burns.

Sources described a chaotic scene after the attack and said more than 30 U.S. service members remained in hospitals as of Tuesday night.

The U.S. military plane that crashed Thursday, killing at least four crew members, was in friendly territory over western Iraq during a combat mission when the incident occurred, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said Friday at the Pentagon.

The military is still “treating this as an active rescue and recovery operation,” he said.

CENTCOM previously said recovery efforts were still underway, without providing any information on the condition of two other crew members who were aboard the plane, which crashed around 2 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US military’s Central Command had appointed an official from outside the command to investigate an attack that hit an Iranian girls’ elementary school in the early hours of the war, and said the investigation would take “as much time as necessary.”

Hegseth said Iran was the only nation involved in the war to deliberately target civilians.

“We have a very high fidelity process in that case. We don’t target. Iran does,” Hegseth said. “We will investigate. We will get to the truth and share it when we have it.”

The sources have told News themezone The United States may have been responsible for the girls’ school bombing, which killed 168 people on February 28.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned the fatal crash of the KC-135 refueling plane in Iraq during his Pentagon briefing on Friday and said “bad things can happen.”

“War is hell,” he said. “War is chaos.”

He called the plane’s crew American heroes and said “their sacrifice will only recommit us to resolving this mission.”

“But war in this context and in pursuit of peace is necessary,” he said.

US Central Command confirmed Friday that four KC-135 crew members died in the crash in western Iraq. CENTCOM said recovery efforts were still underway, but did not provide any information on the condition of two other crew members who were on the plane.

When asked by a reporter about the Strait of Hormuz and when it might be fully open to commercial shipping traffic again, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said it was Iran’s attacks that were restricting transit through the vital sea route.

“It’s open to transit if Iran doesn’t do it,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth noted that Iran had previously used the strait as leverage and said the Trump administration had plans for possible actions by Tehran.

“That is not a strait that we are going to allow to continue to be contested, or with a lack of flow of commercial goods, so we are aware of that,” he said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, at the same Pentagon briefing, said the United States still had a “range of options to resolve a whole range of issues” related to the strait.

A group of Iranian-backed militias that collectively refer to themselves as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed Friday that they had caused the deadly crash of a U.S. KC-135 refueling tanker plane in western Iraq and had attacked a second aircraft of the same type.

The US military’s Central Command confirmed on Friday that four crew members were killed the previous day when a KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq, but the command’s statement said that while the circumstances of the incident remained under investigation, “the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”

CENTCOM said rescue efforts were still underway for two other crew members.

US officials separately told News themezone that they believed the incident. may have involved a mid-air collision, although they also noted that an investigation was still underway.

Authorities told News themezone on Thursday that a second American KC-135 Stratotanker was damaged but later landed safely. CENTCOM did not mention a second aircraft in its statement Friday.

According to flight tracking service FlightRadar24, a KC-135 tanker plane declared an emergency before landing in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday night.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, in a second complaint posted online on Friday, said it had “targeted, with appropriate weapons, a second KC-135 aircraft belonging to the US occupation in western Iraq during the past twenty-four hours. Its crew managed to escape after being hit and made an emergency landing at one of the enemy’s airports.”

Iran does not have the capacity to build more missiles, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday.

“As of two days ago, Iran’s entire ballistic missile production capacity, every company that makes every component of those missiles, has been functionally defeated,” with buildings destroyed by continued US and Israeli airstrikes, he said.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, “is injured and probably disfigured,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday during a Pentagon briefing, without specifying what intelligence had led to his assessment.

Hegseth belittled the first. statement attributed to Khamenei, which was read Thursday by an Iranian state television presenter, calling him “weak” and noting that there was no voice or video demonstrating the new leader’s condition.

“Iran has many cameras and many voice recorders. Why a written statement?” Hegseth said. “I think you know why: his father, dead. He’s scared. He’s hurt. He is a fugitive and lacks legitimacy. It’s a disaster for them. Who is in charge? “Iran may not even know.”

An Iranian official said Wednesday that the new supreme leader was wounded in the attack but was “alive and well.” He has not been seen in public since the war began.

In the statement, Khamenei said Iran should continue to use the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as leverage and vowed that attacks on U.S. targets will continue.

The United States and Israel have struck more than 15,000 “enemy targets” during the war with Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.

“That’s more than 1,000 a day,” he said. “No other combination of countries in the world can do that.”

He said the United States was flying over Iran on Friday with “fighters and bombers, all day long, picking whatever targets they wanted.”

He said the volume of Iran’s missile launches was reduced by 90% on Thursday, and the frequency of its “one-way attack drones” was reduced by 95%.

The United Kingdom will not relax sanctions on Russian oil, despite a move announced Thursday by the Trump administration to do so, as the ongoing war with Iran drives up energy prices.

“The UK government will not relax sanctions against Russia at all. This is an absolutely critical moment in Russian aggression against Ukraine and the sanctions are important. And what we absolutely cannot allow is for Putin sitting in the Kremlin to think that this is an opportunity to invest more in the war machine,” UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks told News themezone partner BBC News on Friday. “The sanctions are important and will be maintained from the United Kingdom”

When asked about the US decision to ease oil sanctions On Russia trying to mitigate the economic impact of the war, Shanks said it was “not going to get carried away by what other countries do. Those are decisions they will choose to make. But we have been very clear throughout that the UK government supports Ukraine. We have been working to build a coalition of people willing to make sure that we are supporting Ukraine’s war effort. “These sanctions against Russia are a really important part of that and the UK will not change its position.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier had been killed in the line of duty during an attack in Erbil, northern Iraq. He identified the soldier as Non-Commissioned Officer Arnaud Frion and added that others had been wounded.

“Several of our soldiers have been injured. France is at their side and with their loved ones,” Macron said in a statement Friday on social media. “This attack against our forces engaged in the fight against [ISIS] since 2015 it is unacceptable. Its presence in Iraq falls within the strict framework of the fight against terrorism. “The war in Iran cannot justify such attacks.”

Iran’s president and foreign minister were among senior officials who joined thousands of people marching through central Tehran on Friday, showing defiance as US and Israeli airstrikes continued, sending up plumes of smoke not far from a crowd, according to videos posted online.

Iran marks “Quds” [Jerusalem] Day” on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in solidarity with the Palestinians, and that was the occasion for the large demonstration in Tehran, but the presence of senior officials was a clear signal to the United States and Israel that their ongoing attacks had not dislodged the nearly 50-year-old theocracy that rules Iran.

The new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was not seen during the rally, and there have been rumors this week that he may have been seriously injured – possibly even left in a coma – in the same attack that killed his father and predecessor on February 28. But Iran watchers say, from past experience, it would be unusual for the supreme leader to appear in a forum as open as a public street rally.

“Today is Quds Day in Iran and, despite the brutal attacks carried out today by the Zionist regime and the United States, we are witnessing massive participation – millions of people – not only in Tehran, but in all cities,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a video posted online, which showed him walking among flag-waving Iranians. “This demonstrates the firm determination of the Iranian people in support of the Islamic Republic, the cause of Jerusalem, Palestine and all the principles that we have defended over the years that have led us to this point. God willing, we will continue with the same strength and power, and we will force our enemies to recognize the strength of the Iranian people.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian was also seen in videos walking through Tehran with other rally attendees, while another clip showed the head of Iran’s powerful judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, leading a prayer.

Speaking to a journalist surrounded by other people during the march, Mohseni-Ejei was briefly interrupted by the sound of another American or Israeli attack nearby.

As he said, Iran’s leaders “want to be with the people, at the side of the people, until the last breath and the last moment,” a loud bang is heard and he and the others around him look toward the apparent explosion, before continuing: “The people are not intimidated by these enemy attacks. They take precautions, but under this rain and under these missile bombardments, there is no way they will back down from the resistance.”

Four of the six crew members died Thursday in the crash of a U.S. KC-135 refueling plane in western Iraq, U.S. Central Command said Friday, adding that rescue efforts were underway for the other two.

“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation,” CENTCOM said. “However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile or friendly fire.

“Service members’ identities are withheld until 24 hours after next of kin has been notified.”

A second Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker was damaged but landed safely in Tel Aviv, officials told News themezone. Flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said a KC-135 tanker plane declared an emergency before landing in Tel Aviv on Thursday night.

US officials have told News themezone they believe the incident. may have involved a mid-air collision, but they were still investigating.

Saudi Arabia said it had shot down nearly 50 drones sent in multiple waves during the early hours of Friday morning, including one that targeted the capital’s diplomatic quarter, Riyadh, which houses foreign embassies, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

The “hostile drone” was shot down “during an attempt to approach the diplomatic quarter,” the ministry reported in X.

In Oman, two people were killed when drones crashed in an industrial area in the Sohar region, the Oman News Agency reported.

Sirens also sounded in Bahrain warning of an imminent fire, and in Dubai black smoke rose from an industrial area after a fire that authorities said was caused by debris from an intercept.

News/AP

President Trump issued a new, vague threat to Iran’s leaders early Friday, while also attacking the New York Times.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the United States was “totally destroying Iran’s terrorist regime, militarily, economically and otherwise; yet if you read the Failing New York Times, you would incorrectly think that we are not winning. Iran’s Navy is gone, its Air Force no longer exists, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and its leaders have been wiped off the face of the earth. We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition and plenty of time: look what It’s happening today to these deranged bastards. They’ve been killing innocent people around the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday morning that NATO air and missile defense systems deployed in the eastern Mediterranean had neutralized a ballistic missile fired from Iran that had entered Turkish airspace.

“All necessary measures are being taken decisively and without hesitation against any threat directed at our country’s territory and airspace, and discussions are being held with the relevant country to clarify all aspects of the incident,” Turkey’s Defense Ministry said.

At least two previous Iranian missile launches against Türkiye have also been intercepted by NATO defenses since the war in Iran began.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the ideological arm of the country’s military, warned on Friday that any new protests against authorities would receive a stronger response than in January, when several thousand people were killed.

“The evil enemy, failing to achieve its objectives on the battlefield, seeks once again to instill fear and street riots,” the guards said in a statement broadcast on television, promising “a stronger blow than that of January 8” in case of new unrest.

The warning comes two weeks after Iran’s war with the United States and Israel, in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says one of the goals is to “create, for the Iranian people, the conditions to overthrow” the Iranian government.

President Trump has also called on the Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government.

In December, protests against the high cost of living in Iran grew into a broad protest movement against the authorities.

They peaked on January 8 and 9 with what Iranian authorities called “riots” attributed to “terrorists” working on behalf of Israel and the United States.

The official death toll according to Iranian authorities stands at more than 3,000, and the government says the vast majority were members of the security forces or bystanders.

Trump said last month that 32,000 people were killed, a much higher number than previously reported.

Two sources, including one inside Iran, told News themezone at least 12,000and possibly up to 20,000 people died in protests across Iran.

News/News