US F-15E fighter jet shot down over Iran as Tehran releases wreckage images :Report

NEW YORK, Apr 03 (APP): Iran shot down an American fighter jet over the country on Friday, the first time that has occurred in five weeks of US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, The New York Time reported.

The newspaper, citing US and Israeli officials, said a rescue effort succeeded in recovering one of its two crew members from Iranian soil, but it said the fate of the other one remained unclear.

The loss of the F-15E jet, reported by Iranian media and confirmed by U.S. and Israeli officials, and the rescue efforts create major military and diplomatic challenges for the United States. President Donald Trump has threatened in recent days to bombard Iran “back to the Stone Ages,” and over the past 24 hours, the United States and Iran have been trading attacks in the region.

Just days ago, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s air defenses were so degraded that the United States was sending B-52 bombers over the country, lumbering planes considered highly vulnerable to antiaircraft systems. The F-15E, with a crew of two, is much smaller, faster and more agile, making it a tougher target, though it is not one of the stealth fighters of more recent design.

Iranian media said helicopters were searching for the crew members. Videos posted to social media and verified by The New York Times show helicopters and a C-130 airplane, apparently American craft that were part of the search and rescue effort, flying low over southwestern Iran.

On Thursday, the United States struck a highway bridge near the capital, Tehran, and Iranian news outlets reported eight people were killed.

Trump has threatened further strikes on energy infrastructure, warning that if Iran does not reopen the strait, the U.S. military will destroy the country’s power plants. “Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!” he wrote on social media late Thursday. “New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!”

Iranian leaders have been defiant in the face of the threats from Trump. Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a statement on Thursday that negotiations with Washington were impossible under current conditions.

Meanwhile, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has mocked the US on his X account after reports that an American fighter jet was shot down over Iran.

“After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’,” a post on Ghalibaf’s account says.

Trump said on 31 March that there has been regime change in Iran, saying the new crop of Iranian leaders are “much less radicalized” and more “rational”.

Ghalibaf has also sarcastically posted, “Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”