A-10 aircraft hit by Iranian air defenses, second US aircraft to go down in the Middle East

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. A-10 aircraft has been hit by Iranian air defenses, Iranian state media reported, citing Iran’s Army public relations office.

The Associated Press reported earlier that a second U.S. Air Force combat aircraft had gone down in the Middle East on Friday.

No other information was immediately known including the whereabouts of the pilot. The Pentagon and White House did not immediate comment.

The A-10, also known by the nickname Warthog, is a single-seat aircraft.

ABC cited the news as heard from a U.S. official on Friday, although US source could not confirm the cause was a hit by Iranian forces. 

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. military was conducting a search operation, a U.S. 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 U.S. military said it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East, without providing more details.

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.

Downed jet could mark a new level of pressure on the US

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 U.S. has lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the conflict and could mark a new level of pressure being placed on the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 a desalination plant and a refinery

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 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.