US F-15E fighter jet shot down by Iran, sparking manhunt

 IRGC says aircraft belongs to squadron stationed at airbase in eastern England

A US airman attaches a GBU-31 munition to an F-15E Strike Eagle in the US Central Command area of responsibility, in support of Operation Hawkeye Strike, 18 December 2025 (AFP/US Air Force)

By Peter McNamara

Published date: 3 April 2026 11:29 BST | Last update: 5 hours 16 mins ago

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) air defences shot down a US F-15E fighter jet over southwestern Iran on Friday.

A spokesperson for Iran’s military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said the jet had been “completely destroyed” and that the pilot’s chances of survival were low, in comments carried by the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

Iran initially stated the jet was an F-35, but US military sources later briefed media that it was an F-15E that had been downed.

Both the US and Iranian militaries have launched a search for the pilot, with Iranian authorities urging citizens to join the hunt.

A local channel affiliated with state TV said the aircraft was targeted over central Iran and may have gone down in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, a rural and mountainous region.

The station aired footage it said showed wreckage of the downed US jet.

The channel’s anchor called on residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to the police, offering a bounty for the capture of any US serviceman.

The IRGC also said that the downed fighter jet was from a squadron based at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, a US-operated airbase in eastern England.

In late March, Iran said it had shot down a US F-35, a statement rejected by Washington.

At the time, the US military said an F-35 had made an emergency landing after a combat mission over Iran, adding that the pilot was in a stable condition.

Iran also said on Thursday that it had downed an Israeli F-16 fighter jet.

Targeting civilian infrastructure

In recent days, the US and Israel have escalated their threats to intensify their military campaign, including warnings of bombing Iran “back to the Stone Ages”.

In a speech on Wednesday night, US President Donald Trump vowed to escalate what he described as two to three more weeks of “extremely hard” strikes against Iran and repeated threats against civilian power plants.

He later renewed his warning that attacks on infrastructure would intensify, saying the US military “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran”.

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"Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants", Trump wrote on social media, adding that Iran's leadership "knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST".

The US‑Israeli bombing campaign has ramped up strikes on civilian infrastructure across Iran, leaving tens of thousands of non-military sites, such as homes, schools and hospitals, damaged or completely destroyed.

Earlier this week, Iranians in Tehran told Middle East Eye that the nature of the strikes had shifted in the weeks since the start of the war, with civilian areas increasingly being targeted.

Iran’s health ministry said US and Israeli strikes on Thursday heavily damaged the Pasteur Institute of Iran, a century-old medical centre involved in combating diseases such as cholera and Covid-19.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had verified more than 20 attacks on healthcare facilities in Iran since 1 March, the third day of the war.

In a post on X on Friday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the strike on Pasteur left it “unable to continue delivering health services”.

He also condemned attacks on the Delaram Sina Psychiatric Hospital on 29 March, and the Tofigh Daru pharmaceutical facility on 31 March.

Fresh explosions were reported on Friday morning in the Tehran area, with Iranian state TV saying US-Israeli strikes hit a bridge in the northern town of Karaj twice - the first causing civilian casualties and the second striking as emergency teams responded.

The strikes killed eight people and injured 95 others, including travellers and tourists, according to the regional governor's office.

Meanwhile, Iran said it had struck targets in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel in retaliation for earlier US-Israeli strikes on its industrial facilities.

The targets included "American steel industries in Abu Dhabi, American aluminium industries in Bahrain, and the Rafael arms factories of the Zionist regime", it said.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-shot-down-second-us-f-35-jet-over-tehran