TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The U.S. military continued a frantic search Saturday for a missing pilot over a remote area in southwestern Iran after the Middle Eastern country shot down a U.S. fighter jet and appealed for people to hand in the pilot, promising a reward.
The plane, identified by Iran as a US F-15E Strike Eagle, was one of two attacked on Friday, with one service member rescued and at least one missing. It was the first time the United States had lost aircraft on Iranian soil during the war, now in its sixth week, and could mark a new turning point in the campaign.
The conflict, started by the US and Israel on February 28, has spread throughout the region. It has so far killed thousands, upended global markets, disrupted major transport routes, driven up fuel prices and shows no signs of slowing as Iran responds to US and Israeli airstrikes with strikes across the region.
The downing of the military jets came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national speech that the US has “completely beaten and destroyed Iran” and “would finish the job and we will finish it very soon”. The United States and Israel had recently boasted that Iran’s air defenses had been destroyed.
Missile and drone attacks continued on Saturday with an apparent Iranian drone damaging the headquarters of US tech giant Oracle in Dubai. The Israeli military said Iran had fired missiles at the country.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on social media that an airstrike struck near its nuclear facility in Bushehr, killing a security guard and damaging a support building. It is the fourth time that the facility has been targeted during the war.
Also on Saturday, Iran’s top diplomat reiterated his government’s willingness to join talks aimed at stopping the war. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said they have “never refused to go to Islamabad”. Pakistan said last week that will soon host the talks between the US and Iran, but it is not clear when or if they will take place.
Two American planes were attacked
Saturday’s search for the pilot focused on a mountainous region in the country’s southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon released public information about the downed planes.
In a Pentagon email obtained by The Associated Press, meanwhile, the military said it had received notification of a “leakage of an aircraft” in the Middle East, without giving further details.
One American crew member from that plane was rescued. But the Pentagon also notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member on the fighter jet was unknown. A US military search and rescue operation continued on Saturday.
In a brief phone interview with NBC News, Trump declined to discuss the search and rescue effort, but said what happened would not affect negotiations with Iran.
Separately, Iranian state media said a US A-10 attack jet crashed in the Persian Gulf after being hit by Iranian defense forces.
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear whether the plane was shot down or shot down or whether Iran was involved. The status of the crew and where it landed was not immediately known.
An anchor on a television channel affiliated with Iranian state television called on residents to hand over any “enemy pilots” to the police.
Throughout the war, Iran has made a number of claims of downing enemy manned aircraft that turned out to be untrue. Friday was the first time the Iranian public was asked to search for a downed pilot.
Iranian state media said in a post on social media platform X that its military shot down a US F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is an Air Force fighter variant that carries a pilot and a weapons system officer.
Tech giant Oracle is hit in Dubai after Iranian threats
An apparent Iranian drone damaged Oracle’s headquarters in Dubai on Saturday after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm.
The attack targeted the headquarters, which is located along Dubai’s main Sheikh Zayed Road highway. Footage verified by The Associated Press outside the United Arab Emirates showed damage to the building. A large hole could be seen in the southwest corner of the building, with the “e” in “Oracle” on a damaged neon sign.
The sheikhdom’s media office in Dubai, which speaks for its government, said a “minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interceptor falling on the facade of the Oracle building in Dubai Internet City”, adding that there were no injuries.
Oracle, based in Austin, Texas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gardaí have accused some of the biggest US technology companies of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations against the Islamic Republic and said they were legitimate targets.
Earlier strikes by Iranian jets hit Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Iran maintains a barrier in the Strait of Hormuz and issues a veiled threat to cut off a second waterway
In a social media post late Friday, Mohammad Bagher Kalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, issued a veiled threat to cut off traffic through the Bab-el-Mandeb, a second strategic waterway. The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It is one of the busiest chokepoints in global trade, with more than a tenth of global oil at sea and a quarter of container ships passing through it.
“What proportion of global oil, LNG, wheat, rice and fertilizer shipments transit through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait?” Kalibaf wrote. “Which countries and companies account for the highest volumes of transit through the strait?”
Iran has already greatly disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, causing fuel prices to skyrocket and shaking the world economy. World leaders are scrambling to end Iran’s stranglehold on the strait, with the UN Security Council expected to take up the issue on Saturday.
Trump has wavered on America’s role in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it does not open the strait and telling other nations to “go get your oil.” On Friday, he said in a social media post: “With a little more time, we can easily open the STRAIT OF HORMUZ, get the OIL and MAKE a fortune.”
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began. In a summary released on Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a US-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around attacks on security and state-affiliated sites “rather than indiscriminate bombing” of urban areas.
In the Arab Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 were reported dead in Israel and 13 in the US. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, over 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers also died there.
By SAM MEDNICK, SAMY MAGDY, JON GAMBRELL Associated Press
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Will Weissert, Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finley in Washington contributed to this report.
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