Five US Refueling Planes Damaged in Iranian Missile Strike in Saudi Air Base: Report

Saturday, 14 March 2026 6:24 AM

US Air Force aerial refueling tanker KC-135 Stratotanker (Photo by AP)

Five US Air Force refueling planes have reportedly been damaged in an Iranian missile strike at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

The planes were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia in recent days, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing two US officials.

The WSJ added that no one was killed in the strikes.

The recent update indicates that at least seven US Air Force refueling planes have been damaged or destroyed in total since the beginning of the US-Israeli aggression against Iran on February 28.

This figure follows an incident on Thursday, where six American troops were killed after the Iraqi resistance downed US aircraft, as confirmed by the Pentagon on Friday.

The collision occurred near Turaibil, along the Iraqi-Jordanian border, CBS News reported, citing an Iraqi intelligence source.

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.

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 Revolution Guards 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 beginning of the US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran.

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.