US fighter jet shot down over Iran, one pilot rescued, source confirms to ‘Post’
Iran shot down a United States fighter jet over central Iran in the first instance of a US aircraft being downed by enemy fire, a source with knowledge of the incident confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Friday.
The source also confirmed that one of the jet’s two pilots was rescued, and search-and-rescue operations are underway to locate the other.
According to a New York Times report citing Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow who studies air power and technology at the Royal United Services Institute, the downed jet is suspected to be an F-15E Strike Eagle.
Bronk analyzed photos shared by Iranian state media that allegedly show wreckage of the jet and concluded that the markings on the material in the photos were consistent with those of the vertical stabilizer section of F-15E jets used by the 494th Fighter Squadron, which is based at the Royal Air Force Lakenheath base in the United Kingdom.
US President Donald Trump told The Independent late on Friday that he could not comment on what his course of action might be if Iranian forces got to the downed airman, saying, “We hope that’s not going to happen.”
Earlier on Friday, Trump told NBC News that the downing of the jet will not affect negotiations with Iran.
“No, not at all. No, it’s war. We’re in war,” said Trump.
Iranian media quoted a provincial official as saying early Saturday morning that Iran’s search for the American pilot was “still ongoing.”
Iran offers reward for captured pilot, mocks situation
A local television station operated by the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) aired an announcement declaring that there would be a reward issued to any civilians who could capture or locate the US pilots and turn them in to law enforcement.
Additionally, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf mocked the incident.
“After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’ ” Ghalibaf wrote on X on Friday.
“Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses,” he continued.
Right now, the entire US media is preoccupied 24/7 from CNN to all the others about how the search for an American pilot from their F-15 is going on.
Before this blow to US fighter jets, the American media said nothing about their country invasion of Iran. When the same US fighter jets now being dropped by Iranian were blowing up schools in Tehran and killing hundreds of students the US media was very pleasantly silent about that to make Trump happy.
Now it is a mess. Nobody knows what is coming next and that includes Donald Trump.
Iran happens to be the only country in the world that fights without fighter jets. Their ballistic missiles are their fighter jets. It is scary and now they can shoot down big time US fighter jets. That is no joke.
When Israel and the US invaded Iran one month ago the UN was dead silent and the criminal invasion of Iran was just going to be a few weeks for the invaders to have fun killing Iranians for regime change. Never worked and will not work.
What next?
Reuters contributed to this article.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
