DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — 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 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.â€
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 , 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 US
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.
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 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 and a refinery
News about the downed aircraft came after Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery came under Iranian attack, and 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, .
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. have been killed.
More than 1,300 people and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
Iran is keeping a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz
World leaders to end Iran’s stranglehold on the strait, which has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy and has proved to be its in the war.
The U.N. Security Council was 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.â€
, the international standard, were around $109 Friday, up more than 50% since the start of the war, when Iran began restricting traffic through the strait.
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Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Toropin and Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finely in Washington contributed to this report.
