Iran-US war latest: One crew member rescued after US fighter jet shot down as Tehran says it downed second plane

The US suffered several attacks to its aircraft on Friday after Iran struck two of its military combat jets and hit two of its helicopters.

Search-and-rescue efforts are said to be ongoing as the US scrambles to locate a missing pilot in Iran.

An F-15E Strike Eagle carrying two crew members was downed over Iran on Friday. US officials said they ejected before the aircraft went down.

One pilot has been rescued, while the other is still missing. Iran is hoping to find the crew member before the US does, reportedly offering citizens around £50,000 to anyone who hands over the “criminal American pilot” alive.

Following this attack, an A-10 Thunderbolt deployed to support the search and rescue mission was also struck.

The pilot managed to navigate the damaged plane to Kuwaiti airspace before ejecting and being rescued, officials have said.

Iran then hit two Blackhawk helicopters, which were also involved in the rescue mission. Officials have said personnel on board sustained minor injuries, but are safe.

What has Donald Trump said?

The US president is yet to publicly comment on the attacks, but told The Independent he isn’t yet ready to say what the US will do if the missing crew member is harmed.

Asked what he’d do if the pilot is captured or harmed by Iranians, Trump replied: “Well, I can’t comment on it because — we hope that’s not going to happen,” and ended the call shortly thereafter.

He also told NBC that the ⁠downing ​of ⁠the fighter jet ‌would not affect ‌negotiations ⁠over ending the war in Iran.

“No, not at all. No, it’s war. We’re in war,” he said.

In a vague post on social media made after the attack, the US president wrote: “KEEP THE OIL, ANYONE?”

Three UN personnel were wounded after Hezbollah carried out a rocket attack, which struck a UNIFIL outpost in southern Lebanon, the Israeli Defence Force said.

According to the IDF, two of the people were “severely” injured.

UNIFIL was created by the Security Council in 1978 to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and restore international peace and security. It has served as a buffer between the two countries.

Residents in Iran have been offered a reward if they hand over any “enemy pilot” to police following the downing of a US F-15 fighter jet.

Iranian state news issued pleas for citizens to search for and capture the pilot and hand them over to police alive.

Outlets have reported that the governor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province promised a reward of 10 billion tomans (around £50,000) for anyone who hands over the “criminal American pilot”.

Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social to make his first public comments after an F-15 fighter jet was downed in Iran on Friday.

“KEEP THE OIL, ANYONE?”, the US president wrote.

It follows a post from Trump earlier in the day, in which he said that “with a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A “GUSHER” FOR THE WORLD???”

The US president is yet to issue a public statement about the attack on Friday. A search-and-rescue operation is underway to locate a missing crew member.

The Independent’s White House Correspondent Andrew Feinberg spoke to Donald Trump as search-and-rescue efforts continue after the shooting-down of an American fighter over Iran:

As American and Israeli forces search for a F-15 aircrew member forced to eject after being shot down over Iran, President Donald Trump isn’t yet ready to say what the U.S. will do if the missing crew member is harmed.

In a brief Friday phone interview with The Independent, the president said he could not comment on what his course of action might be if Iranian forces get to the downed airman, the first American aviator to be shot down over enemy territory since an A-10 “Warthog” pilot ejected into Iraq after being struck by a surface-to-air missile in April 2003, just weeks into Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“We hope that’s not going to happen,” said the president, who ended the call shortly thereafter.

Trump’s expression of optimism regarding the fate of the missing Air Force officer came as Combat Search and Rescue forces from Israel and the United States were searching for the crew member, hours after they were forced to eject from their two-person fighter over Iranian territory.

The downed F-15 is the fourth American fighter aircraft — and the sixth military plane — lost since Trump started the massive air campaign against Tehran on February 28. Of those six, it is the only one so far to have been downed by enemy fire.

Iran struck a second US airforce plane on Friday in the Persian Gulf region and hit two US helicopters in a search-and-rescue effort.

US officials said an A-10 attack plane was also hit by incoming fire, and the pilot navigated the damaged plane to Kuwaiti airspace before ejecting and being subsequently rescued, The Washington Post reported.

According to the officials, two US Black Hawk helicopters were also were hit by Iranian fire, which injured personnel on board. Both aircraft are reported to have returned safely to their base.

The helicopters were reportedly involved in a search-and-rescue effort after a F-15 fighter jet was downed in Iran. So far, one pilot on the fighter jet has been rescued, while the other is still missing.

Donald Trump ⁠said ​that the ⁠downing ​of ⁠the F-15 fighter jet ‌would not affect ‌negotiations ⁠over ending the war in Iran.

Speaking to NBC, the US reportedly refused to discuss the specifics of ongoing search and rescue efforts in Iran, but expressed frustration about some of the coverage of what is plainly an intense and sensitive rescue operation.

Asked if today’s events will affect any negotiations with Iran, the president told NBC’s Garrett Haake: “No, not at all. No, it’s war. We’re in war, Garrett.”

It follows reports from Iranian media that Tehran has rejected a US proposal for a 48-hour ceasefire.

We’ve had past presidents proclaim, ‘God protect our soldiers,’ but ‘this is different in kind from anything we’ve seen before,’ one military law expert tells Brendan Rascius, while a former US ambassador calls Hegseth’s war religiosity ‘performance art’:

The chief of Nato is set to meet with Donald Trump on Wednesday, following criticism from the US president over the alliance’s supposed lack of help in Iran.

Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth will also attend the discussions with Mark Rutte in Washington.

It comes after the US president said he was seriously considering withdrawing the US from Nato.

He told Politico on Friday he “couldn’t care less” about Nato, saying “they were they weren’t there. I have no frustration. I couldn’t care less.

“I didn’t need them … But if I ever did need them, they wouldn’t be there. And we had a lot of money every year in NATO, so I learned a lot. So did the country, so did the United States, and NATO is — NATO is a paper tiger.”