Iran claimed Friday it shot down an American fighter jet and put a bounty on the missing pilot — as a search-and-rescue operation was launched for the crew.
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.
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.
A US F-35A was damaged over Iran in 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.
Iranian media has claimed the latest allegedly downed jet was an F-35 stealth jet, but images purportedly showing pieces of the destroyed aircraft more closely resemble an F-15.
The anchor of a local affiliate of the state TV broadcaster urged Iranians to hunt down the “enemy pilot or pilots.”
The outlet claimed that at least one US pilot had ejected from the aircraft over southwestern Iran.
“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.
Meanwhile, the US launched a search-and-rescue operation to locate the two crew, sources told Axios.
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Iranian state media shared images that appeared to be American aircraft flying over the area, including search-and-rescue planes, helicopters, and drones.
It wasn’t immediately clear where in Iran the jet went down; however, a video geolocated by CNN showed multiple military aircraft flying low over Khuzestan Province in central Iran.
The Pentagon has yet to make a statement on the reports.
Iran has regularly made fraudulent claims of downing American aircraft throughout the month-long war; however, 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.
CENTCOM did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
With Post wires
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