00:00I'm going to quickly take our viewers through the latest news break and you can add in on that
00:03because earlier on this was something, a piece of news that was confirmed by Kuwait
00:07but now it's been reconfirmed by the United States of America as well
00:10that the F-15 that went down was in fact friendly fire.
00:16Now the latest that is coming in is that the three U.S. F-15 strike eagles
00:20flying in support of Operation Epic Fury went down over Kuwait
00:24due to an apparent friendly fire incident.
00:26During active combat that included attacks from Iranian aircrafts, ballistic missiles and drones
00:31and the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defences.
00:37All six air crews ejected safely and have been recovered and are in stable condition.
00:42Kuwait has acknowledged this incident and we are grateful for the efforts of the Kuwaiti defense forces
00:47and their support in this ongoing operation.
00:50The cause of the incident is under investigation.
00:52Additional information will be released as and when it becomes available.
00:56Geetha, I want to bring you in because still now we had images of one fighter jet which went down
01:01and what has been confirmed by America is that there were six that went down in friendly fire.
01:08Reconfirming what was stated by Kuwait.
01:10Well that's right, two allies sticking to the official statement that they're putting out,
01:16clearly calling it friendly fire.
01:17It's the Patriot missile defense system that Kuwait also has and it's an American system.
01:24So a lot of experts would say it's unlikely that a Patriot will not recognize an F-15 and the
01:31other F-class fighter jets.
01:34But in this case it has happened, not one, but there are a few that have gone down and the
01:39American side now confirms
01:41what the Kuwaiti government was saying, that it was a friendly fire in which F-15s have been downed.
01:47A very serious, serious incident at a time when these countries are at war.
01:53When America is at war, to lose F-15s, to lose your fighter jets and that in a friendly fire,
01:59calls for investigation, calls for what really happened on the ground,
02:04calls for looking at your tech check on how could the Patriot missiles have struck all these jets down.
02:13That's a very, very serious incident and I suppose there will be some internal investigation into the matter.
02:18Geetha, you know, internal investigation, all right, and also both the allies, like you said,
02:23are matching notes in terms of how these jets went down in friendly fire.
02:27But Geetha, there is a sense of intrigue also that is attached to it because you can understand
02:32where one fighter jet that could have gone down in friendly fire due to various reasons.
02:38But six of them that went down in friendly fire, you know, there is a fair amount of international intrigue
02:44attached to it.
02:45Well, absolutely. It spells suspect, it looks suspect, but that's the official version right now.
02:54Friendly fire. The Patriots fired on their own.
03:00This is an American missile defense system.
03:04The American jets shouldn't have happened, couldn't have happened in any other alternate universe.
03:11They would have said that this is an impossible, but it has happened and the pilots ejected.
03:19But then again, you know, there is a lot that the both sides, the Kuwaitis and the Americans will have
03:25to look into
03:25because this is not one freak accident, one freak incident to do with one F-15.
03:31We are looking at a number of F-15s over here that were down by the defense system, air defense
03:38system of Kuwait
03:39that again was provided by America, Preeti.
03:42So I suppose the official statements are out, but I'm sure there will be an internal investigation.
03:48All right, Geetha, thank you for joining us because I want to quickly take our viewers through the latest news
03:55break that is coming in.
03:56And like I said, there is a fair amount of intrigue which is attached to it because earlier on there
04:00were indications
04:01and there are visuals of one particular F-15 fighter jet that is coming down.
04:06And the Kuwait, the explanation to that was that this was friendly fire.
04:11But now it seems there wasn't one.
04:13There were six fighter jets that came down in friendly fire.
04:16And this has now also been confirmed by the United States of America, saying that, in fact, saying three, not
04:23six,
04:24three U.S. F-15 strike eagles flying in support of Operation Epic Fury went down over Kuwait due to
04:30an apparent friendly fire incident.
04:32During active combat that included attacks from Iranian aircrafts, ballistic missiles and drones,
04:37the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defense.
04:42All six air crews ejected safely and have been recovered and are in stable condition.
Comments