One crew member rescued, another missing as US fighter jet shot down in Iran
Washington (AP): A US fighter jet was shot down in Iran on Friday and one of two crew members was rescued, officials said, the first aircraft downed since the war began nearly five weeks ago. The whereabouts of the second crew member was unknown.
The downing marked a major escalation in the conflict just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the US has “beaten and completely decimated Iran” and was “going to finish the job, and we're going to finish it very fast.”
The rescue occurred as the US military was conducting a search operation, a US official and an Israeli official said. Three people familiar also confirmed that a search had been underway. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation.
No official details were released. The Pentagon notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member is not known.
The circumstances that downed the plane were at first unclear. But in an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, the US military said it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East, without providing more details.
Separately, a second US Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a US 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 neighbours, despite US 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.
Downed jet could mark new level of pressure on US
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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 had urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police and promised a reward.
It was the first time the US has lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the conflict and could mark a new level of pressure being placed on the US military.
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 downed pilot.
Iranian state media said in a post on X that Iran's military shot down a US F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a pilot and weapons system officer.
Alan Diehl, a former investigator for the Air Force Safety Center, said the Strike Eagle has an emergency locator beacon in a survival kit that can be set to activate automatically or manually.
The Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a previous statement that Trump had been briefed but did not offer additional information.
Iran targets desalination plant, refinery
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News about the fighter jet came after Iran attacked Kuwait's Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery. 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.
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 February 28 with US and Israeli strikes. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a US-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 US service members have been killed.
More than 1,300 people have been killed and more than one million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
Iran keeping chokehold on Strait of Hormuz
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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 UN 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 USD 109 Friday, up more than 50 per cent since the start of the war, when Iran began restricting traffic through the strait.
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Three dead after drinking country liquor in Meerut, police initiate probe
Meerut (UP) (PTI): Three people died under suspicious circumstances after consuming country liquor in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Preliminary probe has not confirmed if they died due to the quality of alcohol, officials said on Saturday.
All three vomited and had abdominal pain after drinking the liquor on Friday evening and were rushed to a hospital where they were declared dead. A post-mortem will determine the exact cause of death, they said.
According to the police, Baburam (60), a grocery shop owner, Jitendra (35), who worked at his shop and Ankit alias Daulat (40), purchased liquor in the evening from a government-authorised country liquor outlet and began drinking at the spot.
Shortly after drinking the liquor, the health of all three deteriorated, and they began complaining of vomiting and abdominal pain.
The three were rushed to a private hospital, where doctors declared Jitendra and Ankit dead, while Baburam passed away during treatment.
Additional Director General (ADG) of Police for the Meerut Zone, Bhanu Bhaskar, District Magistrate VK Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Avinash Pandey, and District Excise Officer Pradeep Kumar reached the spot and initiated an investigation.
SSP Avinash Pandey said that preliminary investigations have not confirmed whether the liquor was "toxic or expired". The bottling date was found to be February 11, 2026, and other bottles from the same batch received no such complaints.
He added that a post-mortem will determine the exact cause of death. Personnel from the Health, Forensic, Surveillance, and Intelligence teams have been constituted to investigate the matter.
Following the incident, the family members created a ruckus at the hospital. Police said further action would be taken based on the findings of the investigation.
