- Iranian state media announced the alleged downing of an American F-35 fighter jet.
- According to Iranian reports, the pilot should have survived the ejection and then been captured.
Iranian state media reported on Friday about the alleged downing of an American F-35 fighter jet. According to their reports, its pilot managed to eject, but the subsequent search mission of the United States failed and Iranian troops captured him. TASR informs about it on the basis of reports from the AP agency.
“If you capture an enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police, you will receive a rare prize,” announced the presenter of local television in the province of Kohgiluy and Bojer-Ahmad. However, the same station specifically urged the public to “shoot them on sight”.
The Central Command of the US Armed Forces (CENTCOM), the US Department of Defense and the White House have not yet commented on the news. However, Iran’s Tasnim news agency claims that the United States military organized a search mission to rescue the pilot, but it failed and the pilot was captured.
According to her information, the US sent Black Hawk helicopters and a C-130 Hercules aircraft to the area. “Iranian air defenses attacked one of the helicopters near the border and it left the area of operation,” the source of the Iranian agency said.
