The U.S. military said Thursday that a KC-135 military refueling plane was lost while flying over Iraq in an incident that was “not due to hostile or enemy fire.”

The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the incident involved two aircraft and occurred in friendly airspace. One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely, it added.

“The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing, the the U.S. Central Command said, referring to the war against Iran, which led to retaliatory strikes by Tehran across the Middle East.

It was unclear how many U.S. service members were on board the KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a group of militias in the country backed by Iran, claimed responsibility for the downing of the U.S. aircraft in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.

This is the fourth reported aircraft loss since the Iran war started, after three F-15 fighters were shot down by friendly fire from Kuwait’s air defenses.

The KC-135, which cost $39.6 million in 1998 according to the U.S. Air Force, is normally used to refuel other aircraft in mid-air.

The aircraft loss comes as Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, said Tehran would make the U.S. “sorry” for starting the war in Iran.

“Trump says he is looking for a speedy victory. While starting a war is easy, it cannot be won with a few tweets,” Larijani said in a post on X early Friday.

His statement followed remarks by Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, that the Strait of Hormuz maritime passage should remain closed as a “tool to pressure the enemy.”

Khamenei also said all U.S. military bases in the Middle East should close immediately and warned that “those bases will be attacked,” in televised comments translated by Reuters.

Despite U.S. President Donald Trump claiming that “we won” in Iran and that the war will end “very soon,” more foreign ships were struck in the Persian Gulf on Thursday.

Iran also warned that oil prices could climb to $200 a barrel, accusing the U.S. of destabilising regional security, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran’s military command, said Wednesday, according to Reuters.

— CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

The U.S. Justice Department said Friday that it has reached a deal with Boeing that will allow the aircraft maker to avoid prosecution over two crashes of its 737 Max planes that killed 346 people.

The non-prosecution agreement would allow Boeing, a major military contractor and top U.S. exporter, to avoid being labeled a felon. The decision means Boeing won’t face trial as scheduled next month, as crash victims’ family members have urged for years.

The Department of Justice met with crash victims’ family members last week to discuss the potential deal.

In a court filing Friday the DOJ said it “is the Government’s judgment that the Agreement is a fair and just resolution that serves the public interest.”

The agreement “guarantees further accountability and substantial benefits from Boeing immediately, while avoiding the uncertainty and litigation risk presented by proceeding to trial.”

The DOJ said it intends to file a motion to dismiss the case once the “agreement in principle” is finalized, by no later than the end of next week.

Under the agreement, Boeing will have to “pay or invest” more than $1.1 billion, the DOJ said in its filing in federal court in Texas on Friday. That amount includes a $487.2 million criminal fine, though $243.6 million it already paid in an earlier agreement would be credited. It also includes $444.5 million for a new fund for crash victims, and $445 million more on compliance, safety and quality programs.

Boeing declined to comment.

The company has been trying for years to put the two crashes of its best-selling Max planes — a Lion Air flight in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight less than five months later — behind it. The Maxes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years after the second crash, a pause that gave rival Airbus a head start in recovering from the Covid pandemic.

But families of the crash victims have criticized previous agreements as sweetheart deals for Boeing, called for more accountability from the company and said its executives should stand trial. In 2022, a former chief technical pilot for Boeing was acquitted on fraud charges tied to the Max’s development.

Several of the victims’ family members issued a statement through their lawyer shortly after the court filing was released criticizing the deal and saying it set a troubling precedent for other large companies.

“This kind of non-prosecution deal is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history. My families will object and hope to convince the court to reject it,” said the families’ lawyer, Paul Cassell.

The Justice Department said relatives of more than 110 crash victims told the government they support the non-prosecution agreement or “support the Department’s efforts to resolve the case…