A U.S. fighter jet was shot down in Iran on Friday and one crew member was rescued, officials said, the first aircraft downed since the war began nearly five weeks ago.
It marked a major escalation in the conflict just two days after U.S. President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran” and was “going to finish the job, and were going to finish it very fast.”
The rescue occurred as the U.S. military was conducting a search operation, a U.S. official and an Israeli official said. Three people familiar also confirmed that a search had been underway. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation.
No official details were released. The number of crew on board and the whereabouts of any others were not immediately known.
The circumstances that downed the plane were at first unclear. But in an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. military said it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East, without providing more details.
The jet being shot down happened as Iran also fired on targets across the Mideast, keeping the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors, despite U.S. and Israeli insistence that Iran’s military capabilities have been all but destroyed.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, have roiled stock markets, sent oil prices skyrocketing, and threatened to raise the cost of many basic goods, including food.
Shooting could mark a new level of pressure on the U.S.
Prior to word of the rescue, social media footage showed American drones, aircraft and helicopters flying over the mountainous region where a TV channel affiliated with Iranian state television had said earlier Friday that at least one pilot bailed out of the fighter jet.
An anchor on the channel urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police and promised a reward.
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It was the first time the U.S. has lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the conflict and could mark a new level of pressure being placed on the U.S. military.
Throughout the war, Iran has made a series of claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true. Friday was the first time that Iran went on television urging the public to look for a suspected downed pilot.
Iranian state media said in a post on X that Iran’s military shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a two-person crew consisting of a pilot and weapons system officer.
Alan Diehl, a former investigator for the Air Force Safety Center, said the Strike Eagle has an emergency locator beacon in a survival kit that can be set to activate automatically or manually.
The Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a previous statement that Trump had been briefed but did not offer any additional information.
Iran targets a desalination plant, refinery
News about the downed aircraft came after Iran attacked Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery. The state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said firefighters were working to control several blazes.
Kuwait also said an Iranian attack caused “material damage” to a desalination plant. Such plants are responsible for most of the drinking water for Gulf states, and they have become a major target in the war.
Sirens also sounded in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed several Iranian drones, and Israel reported incoming missiles.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates shut down a gas field after a missile interception reportedly rained debris on it and started a fire.
Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan, but it wasn’t immediately clear what was hit. A day earlier, Iran said the U.S. hit a major bridge, which was still under construction, killing eight people.
In Lebanon, where Israel has launched a ground invasion in its fight with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militant group, an Israeli drone strike on worshippers leaving Friday prayers near Beirut killed two people, according to the state‑run National News Agency
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites “rather than indiscriminate bombardment” of urban areas.
More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, 19 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
More than 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
Iran keeps chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz
World leaders have struggled to end Iran’s stranglehold on the strait, which has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy and has proved to be its greatest strategic advantage in the war.
The U.N. Security Council was expected to take up the matter on Saturday.
Trump has vacillated on America’s role in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it doesn’t open the waterway and telling other nations to “go get your own oil.” On Friday, he said in a post on social media that, “With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.”
Spot prices of Brent crude, the international standard, were around US$109 Friday, up more than 50 per cent since the start of the war, when Iran began restricting traffic through the strait.
“The rescue occurred as the U.S. military was conducting a search operation, a U.S. official and an Israeli official said. Three people familiar also confirmed that a search had been underway. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation.”
Ummm, how are these valid sources?
Amazing how these young kids are sacrificing themselves for a kiddy fiddler and a convicted felon.
Amazing, after Trump says the Iranian military was ‘obliterated’ several weeks ago. LMAO!
No mention of the Warthog shot down Friday or the 3 F15’s shot down by ‘friendly fire’ by Iraq earlier this week?
It is going from bad to worse…
Im struck by irony of Iranian state media using a US social media company to announce the downed aircraft and the bounty for turning in US military personnel
Wonder if the jet was one of the newest state of the art ones. Canada should buy Gripens not F35’s.
No sympathy at all. Shoot down a few more for all I care. When is Iran going after Trump? The world waits with baited breath. The party that will ensue when that happens will be magnificent.
MAGANUKs: Carney started this war and Trump is Jesus.
They’re so predictable.
Trump and Israel know what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST! He has to stop attacking Iran, and seek peace.
Trump claims to be a peace maker, but his true colours show up when he makes statements such as stealing all the oil, and making a fortune. He is not after peace, but lining his own pockets.
Everyone is against him, no country wants to join his illegal attacks. His citizens want him to stop. Now he is showing just how vulnerable his greatest and most powerful military really is. Soon the tail between his legs will be obvious to all, if he does not bow out.
Islam hates anything not Islam. There is no appeasing it. They will hate the West no matter what the West does.
Nearly zero public support from the naturally born citizens of N.America
They are only breeding future hatred toward the west. Today is the anniversary the Lord sent his son to die for our sins. God bless
It’s odd when it’s our own allies that are the bad guys. Here they are trying to paint Iranians as ‘terrorists.’ The o ly terrorists are those demons in Tel Aviv. Israel delenda est.