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  "path": "/news/1988487/iran-us-race-to-find-crew-member-of-crashed-american-fighter-jet",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-04T05:29:02.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.dawn.com",
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    "shot down",
    "A-10 ground attack aircraft",
    "not affect",
    "targeted by the United States",
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  "textContent": "Iranian and American forces raced each other on Saturday to recover a crew member of the US fighter jet shot down inside Iran.\n\nTehran said it had shot down the F-15 warplane, while US media reported United States special forces had rescued one of its two crew members, with the other still missing.\n\nIran’s military also said it downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot was rescued.\n\nThe war erupted more than a month ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran that assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, triggering retaliation that spread the conflict throughout the Middle East, convulsing the global economy and impacting millions of people worldwide.\n\nUS Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the loss of the F-15, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The president has been briefed.”\n\nPresident Donald Trump told _NBC_ the F-15 loss would not affect negotiations with Iran, saying: “No, not at all. No, it’s war.”\n\n## ‘Valuable reward’\n\nA spokesperson for the Iranian military’s central operational command said “an American hostile fighter jet in central Iranian airspace was struck and destroyed by the IRGC Aerospace Force’s advanced air defence system”.\n\n“The jet was completely obliterated, and further searches are ongoing.” An Iranian television reporter on a local official channel said anyone who captured a crew member alive would “receive a valuable reward”.\n\nThe US military has announced the loss of several aircraft during Iran operations, including a tanker that crashed in Iraq and three F-15s reportedly shot down by Kuwaiti friendly fire.\n\nMohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, mocked the Trump administration.\n\nHe wrote on X: “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?’\n\n“Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”\n\n> ## Fresh strikes\n\nFresh strikes were aimed at Israel, Iran and Lebanon.\n\nOn Saturday several blasts were heard coming from Tehran’s north, an _AFP_ journalist said.\n\nStrikes by all sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial sites, raising fears of wider disruption to global energy supplies.\n\nIn the area around a bridge west of Tehran that was targeted by the United States, an _AFP_ reporter saw a villa and residential buildings with blown-out windows, but no military installations.\n\nAccording to the martyrs foundation of Alborz province, cited by the official _IRNA_ agency, the attack killed 13 civilians and wounded dozens.\n\nWriting in the US journal _Foreign Affairs_ , Iran’s former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said Tehran should make a deal with Washington to end the war by offering to curb its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief.\n\nIran has virtually blocked the key waterway since the war began, where one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas normally passes.\n\nIranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned that Iran would increase its own attacks on energy sites in the region in response to threats from Trump of attacks on infrastructure.\n\nA drone attack on a refinery owned by Kuwait’s national oil company on Friday sparked fires, while a separate Iranian attack damaged a power and desalination complex.\n\nGulf states, once seen as safe havens, are now under threat, accused by Iran of serving as launchpads for US strikes.\n\nDubai’s media office said authorities there responded to “a minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception” that fell on a building around the marina area.\n\nNo injuries were reported, it said.\n\n## Beirut explosions\n\nThe Israeli military claimed on Friday that it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon in the month since fighting with Hezbollah began.\n\nIt added that it would attack two bridges in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa region “in order to prevent the transfer of reinforcements and military equipment”.\n\nLebanese state media later reported that Israel destroyed one bridge in the region, and local media said that a second bridge was also hit.\n\nThe Israeli military claimed it had begun striking “Hezbollah infrastructure” in Beirut.\n\nAn _AFP_ journalist heard two loud explosions in the capital within half an hour early Saturday and saw smoke billowing from one of them.\n\nLebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday that 1,345 people had been killed — and 4,040 wounded — since the start of the war.\n\nHezbollah has not announced its losses.",
  "title": "Iran, US race to find crew member of crashed American fighter jet"
}