Iranian and US forces yesterday raced to recover a crew member of the first US fighter jet to go down inside Iran since the start of the war.
Tehran said it had shot down the F-15 warplane, while US media reported that US special forces had rescued one of its two crew members, with the other still missing.
Iran’s military said it also downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot was rescued.
Photo: AFP
US President Donald Trump said the F-15 loss would not affect negotiations with Iran.
A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s central operational command said “an American hostile fighter jet in central Iranian airspace was struck and destroyed by the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Aerospace Force’s advanced air defense system.”
“The jet was completely obliterated, and further searches are ongoing,” they said.
An Iranian television reporter on a local official channel said anyone who captured a crew member alive would “receive a valuable reward.”
The US military has announced the loss of several aircraft during Iran operations, including a tanker that crashed in Iraq and three F-15s shot down by Kuwaiti friendly fire.
Retired US brigadier general Houston Cantwell, who has 400 hours of combat flight experience, said a pilot’s training would likely kick in before he or she parachutes to the ground.
“My priority would be, first of all, concealment, because I don’t want to be captured,” he said.
Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf mocked the Trump administration, writing on X: “After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’
“Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses,” he wrote.
Fresh strikes were aimed at Israel, Iran and Lebanon.
Several blasts were heard coming from Tehran’s north yesterday, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist said.
In the area around a bridge west of Tehran that was targeted by the US, an AFP reporter saw a villa and residential buildings with blown-out windows, but no military installations.
The martyrs foundation of Alborz Province said the attack killed 13 civilians and wounded dozens.
Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned that Iran would increase its own attacks on energy sites in the region in response to threats from Trump of attacks on infrastructure.
A drone attack on a refinery owned by Kuwait’s national oil company on Friday sparked fires, while a separate Iranian attack damaged a power and desalination complex.
Gulf states once seen as safe havens are now under threat, accused by Iran of serving as launchpads for US strikes.
In related news, the Israeli military said it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon in the month since fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah began.
It added that it would attack two bridges in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa region “in order to prevent the transfer of reinforcements and military equipment.”
Lebanese state media later reported that Israel destroyed one bridge in the region, and local media said that a second bridge was also hit.
The Israeli military said it had begun striking “Hezbollah infrastructure” in Beirut.
An AFP journalist heard two loud explosions in the capital within half an hour yesterday and saw smoke billowing from one of them.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said 1,345 people had been killed and 4,040 wounded since the start of the war.
Hezbollah has not announced its losses.
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