Updated March 13, 2026 at 1:07 PM PDT
The U.S. military said on Friday that all six crew members were killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft went down in Iraq, raising the death toll after two weeks of war with Iran.
The news came as President Trump and his defense secretary touted success of what they call Operation Epic Fury but complained about negative media coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes have hit more than 15,000 targets and injured the new Iranian supreme leader.
President Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said the U.S. is "totally destroying" Iran's regime, militarily and economically.
Late Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had weakened Iran's rulers, but it may not be enough to topple them — the Iranian people would have to finish the job.
Iranian and Lebanese health officials and Israeli authorities reported more than 1,300 people killed in Iran, 773 people in Lebanon and 12 civilians in Israel, as well as two Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon. Wednesday's aircraft crash over Iraq brings the U.S. military death toll to 13, seven of whom were killed by enemy fire. Eight U.S. service members are severely injured, according to the Pentagon.
The humanitarian toll also deepened as the total number of people displaced by the fighting in Iran and Lebanon reached into the millions.
Here are further updates about the conflict.
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U.S. casualties | More war ahead | Professors killed in Lebanon | Israel drops leaflets | Strikes in Iran | Strikes in Israel | Russian oil | French soldier killed | Lebanon peace calls
U.S. casualties rise and additional Marines head to Mideast
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Friday all six crew members died when their refueling aircraft went down over Iraq.
CENTCOM, which oversees the military's Middle East operations, initially reported an unspecified incident involving two aircraft Thursday. It said the U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft was lost in western Iraq, while the other landed safely. It is investigating the circumstances but confirmed the "loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire."
That brings the U.S. military death toll to 13, seven of whom were killed by enemy fire, according to the Pentagon.
NPR has also confirmed that an additional 2,200 U.S. Marines are heading to the Middle East.
The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit based in Okinawa, Japan, aboard the USS Tripoli, will join an armada of ships taking part in the Iran war, a source told NPR on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The source did not specify what role the Marines will play.
The deployment was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
— NPR's National Security Desk
Officials brace for an end without a deal — and the risk of a "war routine"
A senior official in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations, told NPR they expected the war to last at least another week, and that Israeli leaders increasingly believe the U.S. and Israel will end the war unilaterally, without a negotiated agreement. In such a scenario, the official said, Iran and allied groups, including the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Houthi rebels in Yemen, could establish a new normal of intermittent fire at Israel, prompting repeated Israeli retaliation.
The official said that kind of tit-for-tat exchange would leave Israelis living with an intolerable "war routine" even if the intensity of the conflict fades.
The official also said Israel is not ruling out an expanded ground operation in southern Lebanon, but described Israel as holding back so far from striking broad civilian infrastructure, largely because the U.S. sees Lebanon as a partner.
— Daniel Estrin, Carrie Kahn
Israel kills 2 academics in a strike near Lebanon's university
Two Lebanese academics were targeted and killed by Israeli strikes on Thursday, according to Lebanon's Education Ministry.
An Israeli strike that hit near Lebanon's public university killed the director of the faculty of sciences Hussein Bazzi and a professor, Mortada Srour.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack as a "violation of international laws and norms that prohibit attacks on educational institutions and civilians."
The campus is on the outskirts of Beirut's southern suburbs, where Israel issued an evacuation warning last week.
The Israeli military alleged that Srour was a member of Hezbollah who operated as a weapons manufacturing expert for the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group. It said he was the brother of a commander in Hezbollah's aerial unit who was killed in a previous Israeli military attack.
Israel's military declined to comment on why it killed Bazzi.
— Hadeel Al-Shalchi
Israel drops spy leaflets in Beirut
Separately, the Lebanese army said an Israeli military aircraft dropped leaflets in Beirut that read "You must disarm Hezbollah, Iran's shield" and "Lebanon is your decision, not someone else's."
The leaflets include a QR code along with the caption: "Unit 504 is working to secure the future of Lebanon and its people." Unit 504 is an Israeli military intelligence unit.
The Lebanese army warned its citizens not to scan the QR code because of what it called security risks and the possibility of phone hacking.
The Israeli military did not immediately confirm responsibility for the leaflets.
Earlier, the Israeli military said it struck the Al-Zrariya Bridge over the Litani River, describing it as a key crossing used by Hezbollah fighters and an area from which launchers had been positioned.
Hezbollah began firing rockets at northern Israel last week after Israel launched the new military campaign with the U.S. in Iran.
Israel's assault in Lebanon has killed 773 people and displaced more than 830,000, according to the Lebanese government's disaster management office.
— Hadeel Al-Shalchi
Israel expands strikes in Iran
Israel's air force said Friday it struck more than 200 targets over the past day in western and central Iran, including ballistic missile launchers, air defense systems and weapons manufacturing sites.
The military said the strikes included simultaneous strikes in Tehran, Shiraz and Ahvaz. They targeted regime infrastructure, including an underground site used to produce and store ballistic missiles, as well as a central air-defense base.
One strike in Tehran caused an explosion near a state-organized demonstration in support of Palestinians, according to the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB. The Associated Press said there were no immediate reports of casualties from the strike.
Israel's military says it sent out a warning to Iranians to avoid the area, where it said it was destroying military infrastructure. The warning went out on the Israeli military's Farsi social media accounts. It's unlikely many people in Iran saw the notice as the internet is difficult to access and often blocked by the Iranian government.
Captured on Iranian state TV, the blast occurred close to the huge pro-government rally as a reporter was interviewing a top Iranian official.
Immediately after the blast, the official raised his fist defiantly, vowing never to surrender.
Footage also captured crowds burning U.S. and Israeli flags.
U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran have killed more than 1,300 people, Iran's ambassador to the U.N. said on Tuesday. The United Nations refugee agency said as many as 3.2 million people have been displaced in Iran from the fighting.
— Rebecca Rosman, Carrie Kahn
Iran and Hezbollah attacks hit Israel overnight; dozens treated for minor injuries
An Iranian ballistic missile in the northern Israeli town of Zarzir left dozens lightly wounded, according to Israel's emergency services organization, Magen David Adom.
One person was reported to be in moderate condition and was being treated after being hit with shrapnel. Another 57 people were being treated for minor injuries, mostly from glass shards.
Hezbollah also continued firing into northern Israel overnight, and Israel's military said its air defense and strike operations were responding across both fronts.
— Rebecca Rosman
U.S. temporarily eases Russian oil sanctions for cargoes already at sea
The Trump administration issued a temporary authorization allowing countries to purchase Russian oil already stranded at sea. It argued the move is a narrowly tailored step, in effect until April 11, to stabilize energy markets.
In a post on X, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the measure applies only to oil "already in transit" and will not provide significant financial benefit to Russia.
In a statement published last week, a number of top Senate Democrats warned such a move would weaken sanctions and benefit Russia as energy prices rise.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian oil will empower the Kremlin.
"This easing alone by the United States could provide Russia with about $10 billion for the war," Zelenskyy said during a visit to Paris. "This certainly does not help peace."
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called President Trump's move to lift sanctions on Russia "wrong."
Merz said, "we need a convincing plan on how this war can come to an end."
— Rebecca Rosman, Joanna Kakissis and Rob Schmitz
French soldier killed in attack in Iraq
French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday a French soldier was killed in an attack in the Irbil region of Iraq that left several other French soldiers wounded.
Macron called the attack "unacceptable" and said the war in Iran cannot justify strikes on forces deployed in Iraq as part of the fight against ISIS.
Since the start of the war with Iran, the French president has underlined his concerns about international law not being respected, but also deployed several naval vessels to the Eastern Mediterranean, near Cyprus, to protect French military bases and citizens in the region. French officials have insisted it is a defensive, rather than an offensive mission.
Lebanon again calls for talks with Israel, so far to no avail
Lebanon's president reiterated his call for direct talks with Israel to end the war at a meeting with the United Nations secretary-general on Friday.
"I expressed my readiness to negotiate, but until now we have not received a response from the other side," President Joseph Aoun said Friday.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said his message to Lebanon's leaders is they must "take action" against the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah before talks can happen.
"If the Hezbollah will be restrained, then we are open to dialogue. And we had a very good dialogue with the Lebanese government before," Danon said.
An official in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that Israel sees positive signs from the Lebanese government to crack down on the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, but that the war will continue.
President Aoun has asked the international community to bolster the Lebanese army to help it disarm the militant group.
After the meeting with the U.N. chief, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam criticized Hezbollah for launching rockets into Israel and said "Lebanon did not choose this war."
— Hadeel Al-Shalchi, Michele Kelemen
Daniel Estrin and Carrie Kahn contributed to this report from Tel Aviv, Israel, Hadeel Al-Shalchi contributed from Beirut, Jane Arraf from Irbil, in Iraq's Kurdish region, Rebecca Rosman and Eleanor Beardsley from Paris, Joanna Kakissis from Kyiv, Ukraine, Rob Schmitz from Berlin and Michele Kelemen from Washington.
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