WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense announced Friday that six more American troops have died as a result of the war in Iran, bringing the total to 13 since the conflict began in late February. 

U.S. Central Command wrote in an early-morning social media post that a “KC-135 refueling aircraft went down in western Iraq” on Thursday and that four of the six crew members aboard had been confirmed dead, but posted later that no one survived. 

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

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine said during a press conference at the Pentagon the “incident occurred over friendly territory in western Iraq while the crew was on a combat mission.”

He reiterated there was no “hostile or friendly fire” that led to the crash. 

“We’re also aware of a fire on board the USS Gerald R. Ford. We’re thinking about the crew there who were injured in the fire,” Caine said. “We believe and hope that everyone will be okay.”

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command posted on social media late Thursday the fire began “in the ship’s main laundry spaces” and that it “was not combat-related and is contained.”

The post said the ship was in the Red Sea in support of the Iran war, which the administration has dubbed Operation Epic Fury. 

“There is no damage to the ship’s propulsion plant, and the aircraft carrier remains fully operational,” the post said. “Two Sailors are currently receiving medical treatment for non-life-threatening injuries and are in stable condition.” 

Before Friday, there had been seven U.S. deaths reported in the conflict.

‘Heaviest day’ underway

Caine said during the briefing that military officials expect Friday will be the “heaviest day of kinetic fires” in the Iran war since it began on Feb. 28. 

“They’re continuing to destroy the Iranian Navy to ensure freedom of navigation. And this means going after Iran’s minelaying capability and destroying their ability to attack commercial vessels,” he said. “And we’re targeting their defense industrial base so they cannot rebuild the capabilities that can harm America’s interests or our partners in the future.”

Caine said while the U.S. military has made “progress” since it began bombing nearly two weeks ago, “Iran still has the capability to harm friendly forces and commercial shipping.”

The Pentagon’s efforts, he said, remain “complex, dangerous and difficult.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also at the briefing, said he believes Iran’s new supreme leader has been “wounded and likely disfigured.”

Hegseth also criticized journalists for not providing the government with more favorable coverage of the war in Iran, before moving on to recognize the troops killed during the airplane crash in Iraq.

“War is hell. War is chaos. And as we saw yesterday with the tragic crash of our KC-135 tanker, bad things can happen,” he said, later adding that “war, in this context and in pursuit of peace, is necessary.”

Air strike on girls’ school

Hegseth did not provide any updates about the military’s investigation into whether it bombed a girls’ school in Iran in the first days of the war, killing at least 168 people.  

“I can report that CENTCOM has designated an investigating officer to complete a command investigation,” he said. “The command investigation will take as long as necessary to address all the matters surrounding this incident. And the investigating officer is from outside CENTCOM and is a general officer.”

Nearly every Democrat in the Senate sent a letter to Hegseth earlier in the week demanding military officials conduct “a swift investigation into the strikes on this school and any other potential U.S. military actions causing civilian harm, and the findings must be released to the public as soon as possible, along with any measures to pursue accountability.”

The New York Times reported the same day that an “ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school.”

Hegseth declined to say exactly what additional objectives President Donald Trump believes the military must accomplish before ending the bombing campaign he began alongside the Israeli government. 

“The president has his hand on the throttle and will decide, ultimately, when they’ve been reached that serve the purposes of the United States of America,” he said.

The U.S. Defense Department on Tuesday named four of the six U.S. soldiers killed by an Iranian drone strike, the first U.S. casualties of the war with Iran that President Donald Trump launched over the weekend.

Army Reserve soldiers Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, died March 1, a Pentagon statement said.

All were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command in Des Moines. They were killed during a March 1 drone attack on a commercial port in Kuwait, a U.S. ally. 

The Defense Department has not released the names of the two other soldiers killed in the strike. The incident remains under investigation, the statement said.

The Pentagon did not mention Iran, but said the soldiers were supporting Operation Epic Fury, the administration’s name for the operation.

Trump and Cabinet officials have struggled since Saturday to articulate a cohesive rationale for the strikes, which U.S. forces conducted with Israel. 

Trump said Tuesday he “forced Israel’s hand” to launch the joint attack, contradicting Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s explanation a day earlier that the U.S. joined an Israeli operation.

The incident marks the second time in a matter of months that Iowa service members have been killed in the Middle East.

A lone gunman associated with ISIS killed two Iowa National Guard members, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard of Marshalltown and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar of Des Moines, in Syria in December.