Iranian forces launch search for crew of downed US fighter jet

Iranian forces have launched a search operation for the crew of a United States fighter jet which was downed by an air defence system, Iranian media reported.

Iranian military forces were conducting a search to find the crew of the aircraft that was hit over southwestern Iran, the Fars news agency said on Friday, in the first such report in the US-Israeli war with Iran that began on February 28.

The Reuters news agency cited two US officials saying that a fighter jet was shot down over Iran and that a search and rescue operation was under way for survivors.

There was no immediate comment on the incident from the Pentagon and US Central Command.

Local Iranian television aired footage of what was described as the wreckage of the downed US jet.

Iranian ⁠officials called on civilians to ⁠be on the lookout for survivors.

The governor of Iran’s Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province said ‌whoever captured the crew “would be specially commended,” according to the ‌semi-official ‌Iranian news agency ISNA.

The report of the downed jet came as new strikes hit Israel, Iran and Gulf countries. Large blasts were heard in northern Tehran on Friday afternoon. It was not immediately clear what was hit. Earlier, Israel’s military reported a new missile salvo from Iran.

Strikes by all sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial sites, raising fears of wider disruption to global energy supplies.

The latest strikes come as US President Donald Trump said the US military “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!” on his Truth Social platform, after the United States struck Iran’s tallest bridge.

About 70 percent of Iran’s steel production capacity was destroyed in recent days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, after Iran’s two largest steel plants earlier this week said they were forced out of action by several waves of US and Israeli air attacks.