{"id":514738,"date":"2026-03-02T23:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/514738\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T23:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:02:07","slug":"three-us-fighter-jets-mistakenly-shot-down-over-kuwait-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/514738\/","title":{"rendered":"Three US fighter jets mistakenly shot down over Kuwait | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three US fighter jets were mistakenly shot down over Kuwait<\/a> early Monday in an apparent \u201cfriendly fire\u201d incident, military officials said. All six crew members ejected safely.<\/p>\n

According to a statement<\/a> from US Central Command (Centcom), Kuwait\u2019s air defences fired on the F-15 war planes during a combat mission on the third day of conflict following Saturday\u2019s launch of US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

The crew members who ejected were recovered and are in \u201cstable condition\u201d, Centcom said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring active combat \u2013 that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones \u2013 the US Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Kuwait has acknowledged the incident and launched an investigation, it added.<\/p>\n

According to the Centcom post on X, the incident took place at 11.03pm ET Sunday and involved three F-15E Strike Eagle<\/a> aircraft.<\/p>\n

Video showed one of the jets falling out of the sky<\/a> over Kuwait, while a person could be seen parachuting. The location was verified by Reuters as filmed in the Al Jahra area of Kuwait.<\/p>\n

Another clip<\/a> purports to show one of the pilots, a man in a flight suit clutching what appears to be breathing equipment, in the back of a vehicle. The post said the person was \u201cbeing taken care of by a group of Kuwaitis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gen Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the incident only briefly at a Pentagon press briefing on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am aware of the loss of three US air force F-15Es overnight in the region. I am grateful for the safety of the crews, and we know that this was not from hostile enemy fire. As this matter is under investigation, I\u2019ll not comment further on this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In his own lengthy remarks<\/a>, Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, did not mention the episode.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s state media, citing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Iranian armed forces claimed responsibility for hitting a US plane that crashed in Kuwait, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

The incident highlights the chaos around the conflict that began on Saturday when Donald Trump, without seeking the approval of Congress, ordered the US military<\/a> to attack Iran in an air campaign the White House dubbed Operation Epic Fury.<\/p>\n

The Turkish transport ministry said Monday it had suspended all flights from the country to Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, adding to the cancellation of thousands of flights<\/a> worldwide, and the stranding of hundreds of thousands of passengers.<\/p>\n

Iran responded to the assault by indiscriminately launching missiles at a slew of countries in the Middle East, some of which have landed on civilian areas, including hotels and residential areas. It has also targeted military bases in the region used by the US and its allies, including a drone attack<\/a> on RAF Akrotiri, a British airbase in Cyprus.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Centcom confirmed three US service members were killed<\/a> and five others wounded in the conflict so far. On Monday, officials raised the death toll to four<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kuwait released a statement<\/a> on Monday condemning what it said were \u201cindiscriminate and reckless attacks with missiles and drones against sovereign territories across the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statement, issued before news of the loss of the US jets emerged, added: \u201cIran\u2019s actions represent a dangerous escalation that violates the sovereignty of multiple states and threatens regional stability.<\/p>\n

\u201cTargeting civilians and non-combatant states is reckless behavior that undermines stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate incident reported Monday by Reuters, smoke was seen rising from the vicinity of the US Embassy compound in Kuwait City, with fire trucks and ambulances in the area, a witness told the news agency.<\/p>\n

According to a profile<\/a> of the downed class of fighter jet posted by Barron\u2019s, the F-15 is a twin-engine, so-called fourth-generation fighter jet built by McDonnell Douglas, introduced in the 1970s, and designed to help establish air supremacy during a military conflict.<\/p>\n

Its \u201cE\u201d designation refers to a dual-role fighter, a jet that can handle air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, Barron\u2019s said.<\/p>\n

Reuters contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three US fighter jets were mistakenly shot down over Kuwait early Monday in an apparent \u201cfriendly fire\u201d incident,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-514738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}