After downing two American fighter jets, and thus one F-15 pilot still missing in Iranian territory as of Saturday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has launched a manhunt in a southwestern region of the country. The regional governor has also promised a commendation and reward for anyone who captures or kills “forces of the hostile enemy”.
One of the crew aboard the two-seater F-15E was rescued on Friday but a search was still underway for the second one, US officials said.
This is a big setback for the US as it’s the first time US fighter jets have been downed in this war launched by US and Israel with strikes on Tehran on February 28 — actually the first time in 23 years that an American military plane has been shot down in any conflict at all.
It can now turn into a hostage situation for US in the sixth week of the war, just days after President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age”. Iran has responded with missiles and memes, causing at the very least a stalemate in the military conflict and public opinion of it.
Two planes shot down
Further, Iranian state media also said a US A-10 attack aircraft crashed after being hit by Iranian defence forces. The pilot of the A-10 Warthog managed to eject as it crashed in Kuwait after being hit by Iranian fire.
The incidents show the risks still facing US and Israeli aircraft over Iran despite assertions by Trump and his war secretary Pete Hegseth that US forces have “total control of the skies”.
The last time a US fighter jet was shot down in combat was an A-10 Thunderbolt II during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, according to retired US Air Force Brig Gen Houston Cantwell, a former F-16 fighter pilot, reported news agency AP .
There is already visible disagreement within the American administration over going beyond airstrikes to attempt a ground invasion. Iraq and Vietnam are being cited as cautionary tales amid the conflict that has low public support among Americans and threatens lasting damage to the global economy.
In the middle of that comes the prospect of a US military service person alive and on the run in Iran.
Two Black Hawk helicopters engaged in the search for the missing pilot were hit by Iranian fire but made it out of Iranian airspace, the two US officials told Reuters. The scale of injuries to the crew was unclear.
Iran mocks US in sixth week of war
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf taunted the Americans on X that the war had been “downgraded from regime change” to a hunt for pilots.
Trump has been in the White House receiving updates on the rescue effort, a senior administration official told Reuters.
But negotiations have anyhow stalled. Iran has told mediators it is not prepared to meet with US officials in Islamabad in coming days, and that efforts led by Pakistan to reach a ceasefire have hit a dead end, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The conflict has killed 13 US military service members, with more than 300 wounded, the US Central Command says.
Over 4,000 people are reported killed in Iran since the initial strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Saturday, Iranian state media reported air strikes at a petrochemical zone in southwestern Iran, with five people reported injured so far.
A projectile also hit an auxiliary building near the perimeter of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, the Tasnim news agency said, killing one person. The operations of the plant were unaffected.
Iranian media also reported air strikes on warehouses storing bottled water in western Iran.
Iran has rained drones and missiles on Israel and taken aim at Gulf countries allied to the United States, which have held back from joining the war directly for fear of further escalation.
