A USAF F-15E Strike Eagle flies over The English Channel during an exercise after taking off from RAF Mildenhall, Britain, Nov. 27, 2018. A F-15E was shot down over Iran and search-and-rescue efforts have so far recovered one of two crew members who ejected.EDDIE KEOGH/Reuters
Two U.S. warplanes were downed over Iran and the Gulf, Iranian and U.S. officials said on Friday, with two pilots rescued and a third still missing and being hunted by Tehran’s forces.
The incidents show the risks still faced by U.S. and Israeli aircraft over Iran despite assertions from U.S. President Donald Trump and his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that their forces had total control of the skies.
The first plane, a two-seat U.S. F-15E jet, was shot down by Iranian fire, officials in both countries said.
The second plane, an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft, was hit by Iranian fire and crashed over Kuwait, with the pilot ejecting, two U.S. officials said.
Two Blackhawk helicopters involved in the search effort for the missing pilot were hit by Iranian fire but made it out of Iranian airspace, the two U.S. officials told Reuters.
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The degree of injuries among the crew of the aircraft remained unclear. The status and whereabouts of the missing F-15E crew member was not publicly known.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was combing an area near where the pilot’s plane came down in southwestern Iran and the regional governor promised a commendation for anyone who captured or killed “forces of the hostile enemy.”
Iranians, who have been pummelled by American air power for weeks, posted gleeful messages celebrating the plane downings. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X that the U.S. and Israel’s war had been “downgraded from regime change” to a hunt for their pilots.
Mr. Trump has been in the White House receiving updates on the search-and-rescue operation, a senior administration official told Reuters. The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. President Donald Trump told the nation in a televised speech on Wednesday night that the U.S. military had nearly completed the goals it had set out to accomplish in its war with Iran and that the conflict would soon be ending.
Reuters
The prospect of a U.S. service person being alive and on the run inside Iran raises the stakes for Washington in a conflict with low public support and no sign of an imminent end.
Iran has officially told mediators it is not prepared to meet with U.S. officials in Islamabad in coming days and that efforts to produce a ceasefire, led by Pakistan, have reached a dead end, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The U.S. and Israel opened the campaign with a wave of strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28. The war has killed thousands and threatened lasting damage to the global economy.
So far, 13 U.S. military service members have been killed in the conflict and more than 300 have been wounded, according to the U.S. Central Command.
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Iran has rained drones and missiles down on Israel. It has also taken aim at Gulf countries allied to the U.S., which have so far held back from joining the war directly for fear of further escalation.
In a security alert on Friday, the U.S. embassy in Beirut said Iran and its aligned armed groups may target universities in Lebanon and urged U.S. citizens in the country to leave while commercial flights are still available.
Israel has been waging a parallel campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon after the militant group fired at Israel in support of Iran.
Tensions are escalating in the Middle East as the world looks for ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Reuters
The UN Security Council is now expected to vote next week on a Bahraini resolution to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, diplomats said on Friday, but veto-wielding China has made clear its opposition to authorizing any use of force.
A meeting of the Council’s 15 members was initially set for Friday, then rescheduled for Saturday. Several diplomats said it had now been postponed until next week, with no new date yet announced.
Bahrain’s UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reason for the delay.
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The resolution has faced resistance from China, Russia and others and has been toned down from its original form.
Oil prices have surged since the U.S. and Israel struck Iran at the end of February, unleashing a conflict that has run for more than a month and largely closed the shipping artery.
Bahrain, the current chair of the Security Council, finalized a draft on Thursday that would authorize “all defensive means necessary” to protect commercial shipping.
Rocket trails in the sky above Netanya, Israel, on Friday.JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
On Friday, as Mr. Trump threatened to hit its bridges and power plants, Iran struck a power and water plant in Kuwait, underlining the vulnerability of Gulf states that rely heavily on desalination plants for drinking water.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump posted footage on social media showing dust and smoke billowing up as U.S. strikes hit the newly constructed B1 bridge between Tehran and nearby Karaj, which was due to open this year, and said more attacks would follow.
“Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!” he wrote in a subsequent post.
On Friday, a drone hit a Red Crescent relief warehouse in the Choghadak area of Iran’s southern Bushehr province.
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said its Mina al-Ahmadi refinery had been hit by drones. Other attacks were also reported to have been intercepted in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Missile debris landed near the Israeli port of Haifa, site of a major oil refinery.
Oil markets were closed after benchmark U.S. crude prices gained 11 per cent on Thursday following a speech by Mr. Trump that offered no clear sign of an imminent end to the war.