Two days after President Donald Trump declared that Iran was “no longer a threat” and that its air defense had been “annihilated,” Iranian forces reportedly struck down two US jets on Friday.
Citing an Israeli official and a second source with knowledge of the situation, Axios reported on Friday afternoon that the two crew members piloting the F-15E Strike Eagle jet were struck by Iranian fire and ejected from the plane.
It is the first known time a manned US aircraft has been shot down over Iranian territory since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28.
One of the crew members has been rescued by US special forces, though according to The Washington Post, his condition is not known. The second has not been found, and an intensive operation is reportedly underway to locate him in Iran.
The Intercept then reported later on Friday afternoon that a second US plane, an A-10 Warthog, had crashed near the Strait of Hormuz at around the same time. Similarly, one of the crew members was recovered while another remains missing.
Al Jazeera has reported that a US Black Hawk helicopter was also hit with a projectile while taking part in the search mission and that it managed to leave Iranian airspace before landing safely.
Analysts have raised the possibility that the missing crew members if captured by Iranian forces could be used as bargaining chips in negotiations with Washington.
Iran has claimed responsibility for taking down the F-15 with anti-aircraft fire, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) semiofficial news agency Tasnim stating that it was destroyed.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) had denied Iran’s previous boasts of having downed US jets – including one it claimed was shot down near the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. But the US has not yet made similar denials about Friday’s incidents and has confirmed that the F-15 was lost.
Trump claimed during a televised address to the nation on Wednesday that Iran “has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat,” thanks to a merciless five-week-long US bombing campaign.
He specifically said that Iran’s air defenses had been totally eliminated: “They have no anti-aircraft equipment,” Trump said. “Their radar is 100% annihilated. We are unstoppable.”
The previous week, he claimed Iranian leadership was ready to make a deal with the US because they “can’t do a thing” to protect themselves from US aerial attacks. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken a similar line, lauding America’s “air superiority.”
These claims were already brought into doubt by a report on Thursday by CNN that roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers are still intact, and that the country still has about 50% of its drones according to internal US intelligence assessments. One source told the network that Iran was still “very much poised to wreak absolute havoc throughout the entire region.”
If it is confirmed that Iran was responsible for downing the American jets, it belies the claim that the country’s capabilities have been destroyed.
At least 15 American troops have been killed in the region since Trump launched the war in Iran, according to an analysis by The Intercept earlier this week. More than 520 US troops have also been injured, but CENTCOM has sent outdated casualty numbers to media outlets and refused to say how many total troops have been killed, leading to accusations of a “coverup.”
Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, took a victory lap on social media after news broke of a US plane being downed on Friday and mocked Trump’s claims that the US and Israel have destroyed Iran’s regime.
“After defeating Iran 37 times in a row,” Ghalibaf said, “this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”
Originally published by Common Dreams, this article is republished under a Creative Commons license.
