A US 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 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”.
Read moreTrump pledges to ‘finish the job’ in Iran in national address but offers no exit plan
The rescue occurred 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.
Read moreMiddle East war live: US and Israel say US fighter jet crew member rescued
Separately, a second US Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation. It was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved. Neither the crew’s status nor where the aircraft went down was immediately known.
The New York Times earlier reported that the second aircraft went down.
Those incidents came as Iran fired on targets across the Mideast on Friday, keeping the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors, 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.
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 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.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
