Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. A U.S. fighter jet has been shot down over Iran, and search-and-rescue teams have recovered one of the two crew members who ejected, a U.S. official told Reuters.
The incident is the first known of its kind in the nearly five-week-old war.
One of the crew members aboard the F-15E Strike Eagle has been rescued, Fox News reported.
The search is still ongoing for the second crew member, according US media reports.
The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command did not respond to requests for comment.
The possibility that a U.S. pilot may still be alive inside Iran raises the stakes for Washington in a conflict that has struggled to gain strong public support among Americans, according to opinion polls.
It also presents a significant challenge for the U.S. military, which must balance efforts to rescue the missing crew member with the risks posed to personnel involved in potentially dangerous recovery operations behind enemy lines.
Iranian officials have called on civilians to report any sightings of the crew and have circulated images on social media that they claim show wreckage from the aircraft.
Two U.S. officials said the aircraft was an F-15E fighter jet, which carries two crew members: a pilot and a weapons systems officer.
It remains unclear which of the two has been rescued, and no details have been provided on how the recovery was carried out.
William Goodhind, a forensic imagery analyst with Contested Ground, said images of a tail fin posted online are consistent with that of an F-15E Strike Eagle.
The governor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province said anyone who captured or killed the crew would be “specially commended,” Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported.
The incident follows threats by Donald Trump to strike Iran heavily, including targeting energy infrastructure and desalination facilities, as he pushes Tehran to end the war on U.S. terms.
So far, 13 U.S. service members have been killed and more than 300 wounded in the conflict, according to U.S. Central Command. No American troops have been reported captured.
While Trump has portrayed Iran’s military as weakened, reporting by Reuters citing U.S. intelligence suggests Iran still retains significant missile and drone capabilities.
U.S. officials say they can confirm the destruction of about one-third of Iran’s missile arsenal, while the status of another third remains uncertain, with strikes likely damaging or burying weapons in underground facilities.
The conflict involving the United States and Israel against Iran has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and driving up global energy prices, raising concerns about inflation worldwide.
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