Iran shot down two US warplanes on Friday, with one of the crew members rescued by American forces, as Tehran put a bounty on the missing pilot and urged locals to help in the search amid US rescue efforts.
On Friday, the US aircraft were seen flying low in Iranian skies in a high‑stakes rescue effort.
The developments followed as the Iranian state media reported that two US fighter jets were downed in southern Iran earlier on Friday, with unverified social media footage appearing to show the US’s search-and-rescue operations for the pilots.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Tasnim News Agency later clarified regarding the footage that “the Americans have been conducting a search operation using Black Hawk helicopters and a Hercules C-130 aircraft since an hour ago to free their fighter pilot who was shot down by Iranian armed forces,” citing an informed source.
Soon after the developments, Iran’s Kohgiluyeh provincial state TV announced a bounty from law enforcement authorities for US pilots whose fighter jet reportedly crashed in Boyer-Ahmad province, with additional announcements offering thousands of dollars for information on their whereabouts.
One of the two US crew members from a downed fighter jet was reported rescued by Axios hours later, as US President Donald Trump was also briefed on the incident.
Trump later told NBC News that talks with Iran would not be affected by the downing of the F‑15E.
Iran’s IRGC said its forces had been able to “shoot down 1 fighter jet and 5 aircraft” from the US Air Force in Iranian airspace, state broadcaster IRIB reported later Saturday, though the claims have yet to be confirmed by Washington.
Within 48 hours after Trump’s statements claiming Iran’s air defences had been destroyed, Tehran reported a series of setbacks for US forces, including the crash of an F‑15 fighter jet, the crash of an A‑10 attack jet, damage to an F‑16 fighter jet, and damage to two Black Hawk helicopters, IRNA reported.
The US has lost at least seven military aircraft during the war on Iran, CNN reported Saturday, including four F-15s, a KC-135 tanker, an E-3 Sentry, and an A-10 attack aircraft.
