The rescue occurred as the U.S. military was conducting a search and rescue operation, according to three people familiar who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation. Israel is helping the United States with the operation.
According to an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. military said that it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East. The email did not provide more details.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a previous statement that President Donald Trump had been briefed but did not offer any additional information.
It was the first time the U.S. has lost aircraft in Iranian territory and constitutes a dramatic escalation in the war since it began five weeks ago.
Iran fired on targets across the Mideast on Friday, as Tehran kept the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors, despite U.S. and Israeli insistence that Iran’s military capabilities have been all but destroyed.
Separately, a second U.S. Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation. It was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved. Neither the crew’s status nor where the aircraft went down was immediately known.
The New York Times earlier reported that the second aircraft went down.
Those incidents came as Iran fired on targets across the Mideast on Friday, keeping the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors, despite U.S. and Israeli insistence that Iran’s military capabilities have been all but destroyed.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, have roiled stock markets, sent oil prices skyrocketing, and threatened to raise the cost of many basic goods, including food.
US drones and helicopters spotted over mountainous region
Prior to word of the rescue, social media footage showed American drones, aircraft and helicopters flying over the mountainous region where a TV channel affiliated with Iranian state television had said earlier Friday that at least one pilot bailed out of the fighter jet.
An anchor on the channel urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police and promised a reward.
The number of crew on board wasn’t immediately known. The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command didn’t immediately respond to several messages seeking comment.
Throughout the war, Iran has made a series of claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true. Friday was the first time that Iran went on television urging the public to look for a suspected downed pilot.
An on-screen crawl earlier urged the public to “shoot them if you see them,” referring to the social media footage circulating of U.S. aircraft in the area. The channel showed metal debris in the back of a pickup truck while making the announcement but provided no other immediate details.
Iran targets a desalination plant and a refinery
The claim came after Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery came under Iranian attack, and the state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said firefighters were working to control several blazes.
Kuwait also said an Iranian attack caused “material damage” to a desalination plant. Such plants are responsible for most of the drinking water for Gulf states, and they have become a major target in the war.
Sirens also sounded in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed several Iranian drones, and Israel reported incoming missiles.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates shut down a gas field after a missile interception reportedly rained debris on it and started a fire.
Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan, but it wasn’t immediately clear what was hit. A day earlier, Iran said the U.S. hit a major bridge, which was still under construction, killing eight people.
In Lebanon, where Israel has launched a ground invasion in its fight with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militant group, an Israeli drone strike on worshippers leaving Friday prayers near Beirut killed two people, according to the state‑run National News Agency
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites “rather than indiscriminate bombardment” of urban areas.
More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, 19 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
More than 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
Iran is keeping a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz
World leaders have struggled to end Iran’s stranglehold on the strait, which has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy and has proved to be its greatest strategic advantage in the war.
The U.N. Security Council was expected to take up the matter on Saturday.
Trump has vacillated on America’s role in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it doesn’t open the waterway and telling other nations to “go get your own oil.” On Friday, he said in a post on social media that, “With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.”
Spot prices of Brent crude, the international standard, were around $109 Friday, up more than 50% since the start of the war, when Iran began restricting traffic through the strait.
Iran’s former top diplomat suggests terms to end the war
Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif — a diplomat with long experience negotiating with the West who remains close to a pragmatic wing of Iran’s leadership — wrote on Friday in Foreign Affairs magazine that the time has come to end what he referred to as a stalemate.
The U.S. and Iran have proposed dueling plans, and Zarif’s proposal included elements of both in a sign part of Iran’s leadership might be willing to negotiate.
Iran “should offer to place limits on its nuclear program and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions — a deal Washington wouldn’t take before but might accept now,” he wrote.
It’s not clear how much to read into the proposal from Zarif, who has no official position in Iran’s government, but would likely not have published such a piece without at least some authorization from senior leaders.
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Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Toropin reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.