WASHINGTON — An American pilot was rescued in a daring operation by US special forces Friday after Iran shot down an F-15E fighter jet — and placed a bounty on the crew.
A second fighter pilot was still missing.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed “newly developed and advanced air defenses” had downed the jet, which was “completely destroyed and crashed,” Tehran’s Press TV reported.
The plane had two crew members — one of of whom was located and rescued by US forces hours later, according to reports.
American troops were still searching for the other crew member. Both reportedly were ejected from the jet.
It was unclear exactly where the plane went down, but a video geolocated by CNN shows multiple military aircraft in the search effort flying over central Iran in Khuzestan Province that shares a border with Iraq.
The anchor of a local affiliate of the state TV broadcaster earlier urged Iranians to hunt down the downed “enemy” pilots.
“If you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police, you will receive a precious prize,” the anchor said, according to the Associated Press.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf criticized the US in an X post Friday that its “no-strategy war … has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”
It would be the first known loss of a jet inside the country since the start of the war, during which American and Israeli pilots have carried out more than 20,000 airstrikes, according to the countries’ military officials.
Another A-10 Warthog attack aircraft also crashed near the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, but the pilot has been rescued, US officials told the New York Times.
A US F-35A was also damaged over Iran on March 19 during a combat mission, and 16 MQ-9 drones have been shot down. Three American F-15 fighter jets were also shot down over Kuwait in a friendly fire incident.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth revealed in a Pentagon news conference that the six downed crew members in those jets had “never left the theater” and returned to drop bombs on Tehran Tuesday.
The president has refused to rule out putting American boots on the ground during the conflict, while emphasizing the successes of the joint US-Israeli airstrikes on missile, drone, and other defense infrastructure.
More than 90% of Tehran’s missile and drone capacities have been eliminated in the month-long war, US officials have said.
Iran has previously made fraudulent claims of downing American aircraft throughout the month-long war., but Friday was the first time that state media urged the public to hunt a downed pilot.
As recently as Thursday, US Central Command issued a statement denying a claim of another reported downing made up by the Iranians.
“FACT: All U.S. fighter aircraft are accounted for. Iran’s IRGC has made the same false claim at least half a dozen times,” the combatant command posted to X — hours before the latest report.
The Pentagon and CENTCOM did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Meanwhile, Iranian diplomats taunted President Trump on Friday, after he threatened to continue bombing the theocratic regime “back to the Stone Ages” until it opens the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran stood at the heart of the cradle of civilization while your ancestors in Europe (as the US wasn’t even on the map) were still in the Stone Age – painting faces and swinging clubs,” former Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, posted on X.
“We taught order, law and statecraft. Pity none of it reached some arrogant, ignorant descendants.”
