One crew member has been rescued after an American aircraft went down in Iran, according to one U.S. and one Israeli official, who both spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive ongoing military operations.
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 search and rescue operation.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a 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. It was not clear if the jet was shot down or crashed.
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 Irans military capabilities have been all but destroyed.
Irans attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the worlds 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.
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Television anchor urges residents to hand over pilot
An anchor on a channel affiliated with Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any enemy pilot to police and promised a reward for anyone who did. The channel is in Kohkilouyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, an intensely rural and mountainous region that spans over 15,500 square kilometers (5,900 square miles).
Authorities also urged the public to search for the pilot in neighboring Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province.
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 social media footage circulating of what appeared to be 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.
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