US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed the deaths in a post on the social media platform X on Friday, hours after it reported that the KC-135 refueling aircraft had gone down in western Iraq.
It said at the time that four of the six crew members on board were killed.
CENTCOM also claimed that “the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”
The aircraft, however, was targeted and struck by a missile fired by the Resistance Front in western Iraq, according to a statement issued by the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of Iran on Thursday night.
In a separate statement, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that the aircraft was intercepted and destroyed while it was in the middle of a refueling mission for an "aggressor fighter jet."
The incident has brought the number of US troops killed, as per the Pentagon data, to at least 13 since the US and the Israeli regime launched an unprovoked war against Iran on February 28.
Ever since, Iraqi resistance groups have been carrying out daily attacks on US assets in Iraq and across the region.
The KC-135 is at least the fourth known US military aircraft lost during the war with Iran.
At least three F-15 aircraft were also shot down over Kuwait.
Many observers see the latest incident as a major blow to the US military.
They argue that by targeting the refueling aircraft, the Resistance Front has struck the logistical backbone of US aerial operations, proving that American air superiority is no longer unchallenged in the region.