In a major escalation of the nearly five-week-long conflict, on Friday shot down two US military planes in separate attacks. Two American service member has been rescued, while at least one other is still missing.
The incidents mark the first confirmed losses of US aircraft being brought down since the fighting began. The development comes just two days after President Donald Trump, in a national address, declared that the US has “beaten and completely decimated Iran” and was “going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast.”
Here are the top 10 things you need to know about the incidents:
- One fighter jet (a two-seat U.S. F-15E jet) was shot down in Iran and a US crew member was rescued from that plane but a second was missing, and a search-and-rescue operation was underway, officials say.
- The degree of injuries among the crew of the aircraft remained unclear.
- Iranian state media claimed that a US A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by its defense forces.
- Neither the White House nor Pentagon released public information about the downed planes. However, In an email from the Pentagon that obtained by The Associated Press the military said it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East, without providing more details.
- Two Blackhawk helicopters involved in the search effort for the missing pilot were hit by Iranian fire but made it out of Iranian airspace, two US officials told Reuters.
- In a brief telephone interview with NBC News, Trump declined to discuss the search-and-rescue efforts but said what happened would not affect negotiations with Iran.
- A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity noted it was unclear whether the aircraft had crashed or been shot down, and whether Iran was involved at all. The condition of the crew and the exact location of the incident were also not immediately known.
- Before news of the rescue emerged, footage circulating on social media showed U.S. drones, aircraft and helicopters operating over a mountainous area where a television channel linked to Iranian state media had earlier reported that at least one pilot had ejected from the fighter jet.
- Iranians, who have been pummeled by American air power for weeks, posted gleeful messages celebrating the plane downings. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X that the ’s war had been “downgraded from regime change” to a hunt for their pilots.
- 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 downed pilot.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on 28 February with US and Israeli strikes. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a US-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 and the occupied West Bank, 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 US service members have been killed.
(With inputs from agencies)
