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In a tense atmosphere over southwestern Iran, the U.S. military continued its urgent search on Saturday for a pilot whose plane was shot down by Iran. The pilot went missing after the incident, and Iranian authorities have offered a reward for their capture.
The downed aircraft, identified by Iranian forces as a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle, was part of a duo that came under attack on Friday. While one crew member has been safely rescued, at least one remains unaccounted for. This incident marks the first time U.S. aircraft have been lost in Iranian territory since the conflict began six weeks ago, potentially signaling a significant shift in the ongoing military campaign.
Initiated on February 28 by the United States and Israel, the conflict has had far-reaching effects across the Middle East. The violence has led to thousands of casualties, disrupted global markets, obstructed crucial shipping lanes, and led to a surge in fuel prices, with no signs of the hostilities abating as Iran retaliates against U.S. and Israeli airstrikes with its own regional assaults.
Just two days prior to this incident, President Donald Trump declared in a national speech that the U.S. had effectively “beaten and completely decimated Iran” and vowed to rapidly conclude the military operations. The U.S. and Israel had recently claimed that they had significantly weakened Iran’s air defense capabilities.
Hostilities persisted on Saturday with reports of an Iranian drone striking the headquarters of Oracle, a major U.S. technology company, in Dubai. Additionally, the Israeli military reported missile launches from Iran aimed at their territory.
Meanwhile, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on social media that an airstrike hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a security guard and damaging a support building. It is the fourth time the facility has been targeted during the war.
Also Saturday, Iran’s top diplomat reiterated his government’s willingness to join talks aimed at stopping the war. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said they “have never refused to go to Islamabad.” Pakistan said last week that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran, but it’s not clear when or if they will take place.
Two U.S. planes attacked
Saturday’s search for the pilot focused on a mountainous region in the country’s southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon released public information about the downed planes.
In an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, meanwhile, the military said it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East, without providing more details.
A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued. But the Pentagon also notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member on the fighter jet was not known. A U.S. military search-and-rescue operation continued Saturday.
In a brief telephone interview with NBC News, Trump declined to discuss the search-and-rescue efforts but said what happened would not affect negotiations with Iran.
Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces.
A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it went down was immediately known.
An anchor on a TV channel affiliated with Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to the police.
Throughout the war, Iran has made a series of claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true. Friday was the first time the Iranian public was urged to look for a downed pilot.
Iranian state media said in a post on the social platform X its military shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a pilot and a weapons system officer.
Tech giant Oracle hit in Dubai following Iranian threats
An apparent Iranian drone damaged the Dubai headquarters of Oracle on Saturday after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm.
The attack targeted the headquarters, which sits along Dubai’s main Sheikh Zayed Road highway. Footage verified by The Associated Press outside the United Arab Emirates showed damage to the building. A large hole could be seen in the building’s southwestern corner, with the “e” in “Oracle” on a neon sign damaged.
The sheikhdom’s Dubai Media Office, which speaks for its government, said a “minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade of the Oracle building in Dubai Internet City,” adding there were no injuries.
Oracle, based in Austin, Texas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Guard has accused some of America’s largest tech companies of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations against the Islamic Republic and said they were legitimate targets.
Earlier Iranian drone strikes hit Amazon Web Services facilities in both the UAE and Bahrain.
Iran keeps a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and issues a veiled threat to disrupt a second waterway
In a social media post late Friday, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, issued a veiled threat to disrupt traffic through the Bab-el-Mandeb, a second strategic waterway. The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It is one of the busiest choke-points in global trade, with more than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships passing through it.
“What share of global oil, LNG, wheat, rice, and fertilizer shipments transits the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait?” Qalibaf wrote. “Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?”
Iran has already greatly disturbed the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy. World leaders are struggling to end Iran’s stranglehold on the strait as the U.N. Security Council is expected to take up the matter Saturday.
Trump has vacillated on America’s role in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it does not open the strait and telling other nations to “go get your own oil.” On Friday, he said in a post on social media: “With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.”
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites “rather than indiscriminate bombardment” of urban areas.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, over 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.