Iran launched a hunt for the US crew whose jet Iranian media said had been shot down by the Islamic republic’s air defence systems Friday, deploying troops and offering a bounty.
US media reported US special forces had rescued one of the two crew members, and a local official television station in southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province aired footage of what it said was wreckage of the downed plane.
Iran’s Mizan News Agency said that C-130 aircraft and four Black Hawk helicopters were looking for the pilot of a downed US aircraft within Iran, and that Iranian forces are attempting to combat them.
Fars said that the Iranian army was searching for the pilot.
The report comes after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed it had shot down a US F-35 fighter aircraft, with Tansim News Agency publishing video of debris and that the aircraft was from US forces in Europe that had been deployed to the region, though it did not say the make of the aircraft.
The incident comes as US President Donald Trump vowed to continue striking Iranian infrastructure following strikes on the country’s oldest medical research institute and a key bridge linking Tehran to Karaj.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the US “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants.”
His comments came after he threatened to send Iran “back to the Stone Ages”, a line picked up by other administration officials, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi hit back, saying “striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender.”
Despite thousands of US airstrikes on the country, Iran has continued to launch missiles and drones at Gulf infrastructure, US bases and against Israel, with Iran hitting a desalination plant in Kuwait.
