A United States fighter jet has been shot down in Iran, with one crew member rescued, officials said.
It is the first aircraft downed since the war in the Middle East began nearly five weeks ago and marks a major escalation in the conflict.
Just two days ago, US President Donald Trump said in a national address 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".
The rescue occurred on Friday local time as the US military was conducting a search operation, a US 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 US military said it received notification of "an aircraft being shot down" in the Middle East, without providing more details.
A second US Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Persian Gulf on Friday, and the lone pilot was rescued safely, The New York Times reported, citing two US officials.
It was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved.
Iran fired on targets across the Mideast on Friday, keeping the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours, despite US and Israeli insistence that Iran’s military capabilities have been all but destroyed.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, 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.
Downed jet could mark a new level of pressure on the US
Before word of the rescue, social media footage showed US 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 had urged residents to hand over any "enemy pilot" to police and promised a reward.
It was the first time the US has lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the conflict and could mark a new level of pressure being placed on the US 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 downed pilot.
Iranian state media said in a post on X that Iran’s military shot down a US 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 additional information.
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