A U.S. V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed in Syria Friday, causing minor injuries to two troops in a non-combat incident, military officials said.
A military statement from Baghdad said only that "two service members were injured after a coalition aircraft executed a hard landing" at an undisclosed location in the Mideast.
"The two were evaluated for non-life threatening injuries and quickly transported to a medical treatment facility where they were seen and released," said the statement from Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.
At the Pentagon, officials speaking on background said that the aircraft was an Osprey, but they would not confirm whether it was a Marine MV-22 Osprey or the Air Force version -- the CV-22. The officials also said the accident occurred in Syria, but they did not give a specific location.
Although the incident was described as a "hard landing," Fox News cited defense officials as saying that the aircraft was destroyed on impact and they expressed amazement that no other troops or crew on board were injured.
The Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like a plane, is manufactured under a joint venture between Textron Inc.'s Bell Helicopter unit and the aerospace giant Boeing Co.
The U.S. has at least 500 troops, mostly Special Forces, in Syria and more than 5,000 in Iraq in train, assist and advisory roles for the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@military.com.
