US fighter jet shot down over Iran, 1 of 2 crew members rescued, US sources say
CNN
By Haley Britzky, Alayna Treene, Allegra Goodwin, Brad Lendon, Isaac Yee, Kevin Liptak, Kristen Holmes, CNN
(CNN) — A US fighter jet has been shot down over Iran, three US sources said, confirming Iranian state media reports.
US forces have launched search and rescue efforts, two of the sources said. One of two crew members has been rescued and is in US custody, two of the US sources and a third source familiar told CNN. The crew member is alive and receiving medical attention.
One of the US sources also confirmed the aircraft was an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, an aircraft that can carry out air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. F-15s typically are crewed by a pilot and a weapon systems officer.
Potential rescue efforts appeared to be captured in video posted to social media and geolocated by CNN.
The state-run Tasnim agency said that the search for any missing crew had “so far been unsuccessful.” Separately, on Fars News, an anchor said a reward was being offered for anyone capturing an “enemy pilot or pilots.”
It wasn’t immediately clear where in Iran the jet went down.
“President Trump has been briefed,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN.
The US military and the White House have not commented on the situation or the status of the crew.
Video geolocated by CNN showed multiple low flying military aircraft over Khuzestan Province in central Iran as part of an apparent search and rescue operation.
In the video, one airplane can be seen flying low over the ground while two helicopters follow closely behind – a formation that is consistent with an air-to-air refueling operation. The video was taken on a bridge over the Karoon river, which is around 470 km south of Tehran.
The incident marks the first time a US aircraft has been shot down over Iran during the conflict. Near the beginning of the war, three F-15s were mistakenly shot down in a friendly fire incident by Kuwaiti air defenses.
It comes as Trump administration officials have made repeated claims that the war is essentially won, and that the US has air superiority over the country. Last month, President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office that the US has “won this, because this war has been won, the only one that likes to keep it going is the fake news.”
“[W]e literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country. They can’t do a thing about it,” Trump said.
Iranian state media released photos on Friday of what it claimed was the wreckage of a US fighter jet, showing small pieces of what appears to be an F-15. The photos show a partial logo for “US Air Forces in Europe” on a F-15 tail fin and red-and-white striping from the top of the tail fin.
Another piece of wreckage – with the words “CAUTION USE ONLY NON-MAGNETIC FASTENERS” – appears to match a rear portion of an F-15 that extends between one of its two engines and its horizontal stabilizer.
“From the structure it certainly looks like an F-15, and from the tail flash stripe markings, from the 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom,” Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and former Royal Australian Air Force officer, told CNN.
The F-15 “has the capability to fight its way to a target over long ranges, destroy enemy ground positions and fight its way out,” according to the Air Force. In the rear cockpit, the weapons systems officer monitors the aircraft’s status, checks for possible threats and selects targets, an Air Force information page says.
Multiple Iranian state media outlets, including Press TV, published the images along with a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying that Iranian forces had shot down an F-35 stealth fighter in central Iran.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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