Iran has launched an intensive search for the US crew of a fighter jet reportedly shot down by the Islamic Republic’s air defence systems on Friday, deploying troops and offering a bounty for their capture.
US media reported that US special forces had successfully rescued one of the two crew members, while footage aired by a local television station in southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province showed wreckage of the downed plane.
The conflict, which erupted over a month ago with US-Israeli strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has since escalated across the Middle East, affecting global energy markets and millions of people worldwide.
US Central Command, responsible for military operations in the region, did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
This incident marks the first known loss of a US jet inside Iran since former President Donald Trump ordered military action.
“Dear and honourable people of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, if you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police and military forces, you will receive a valuable reward and bonus,” said an Iranian television reporter on the official local channel.
The report of the downed jet coincided with fresh strikes hitting Israel, Iran, Lebanon, and Gulf countries. In northern Tehran, large blasts were reported, with Israel claiming responsibility for a wave of attacks in the Iranian capital, alongside simultaneous strikes in Beirut.
Earlier, Israel’s military had reported a missile salvo from Iran that triggered its air defences. Strikes from all sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial infrastructure, raising concerns over disruptions to global energy supplies.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, “The US military hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!”, following US strikes that damaged Iran’s tallest bridge. AFP reporters observed blown-out windows in nearby residential buildings in Karaj, west of Tehran, though no military sites were hit.
According to the deputy governor of Alborz province, the attack killed eight civilians and injured 95 others. Israel reported that approximately 70 percent of Iran’s steel production capacity has been affected.
In Abu Dhabi, Emirates Global Aluminium, a major regional metal producer, said it could take up to a year to resume full operations after damage from Iranian strikes.
– Calls for Peace –
In the US journal Foreign Affairs, Iran’s former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, urged Tehran to negotiate a peace deal with Washington.
He suggested offering to curb Iran’s nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief.
Since the outbreak of hostilities, Iran has effectively blocked the Strait, a critical maritime route through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally passes.
Of the few ships able to transit, most have been Iran-linked; sixty percent of commodity-bearing vessels in the strait either originate from or are headed to Iran, AFP analysis showed.
On Thursday, the Maltese-flagged Kribi, operated by French transport group CMA CGM, became the first major European ship to cross the strait since March 1.
Three other ships, including one co-owned by a Japanese firm, also crossed, though commodity traffic remains down 94 percent compared to peacetime, according to Kpler data.
Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned that, in retaliation for Trump’s threats against infrastructure, Tehran would escalate attacks on regional energy sites.
On Friday, a drone strike hit a Kuwaiti national oil refinery, causing fires in multiple units. Later, another Iranian attack damaged a power and desalination complex in Kuwait, with debris causing secondary damage in Abu Dhabi, prompting a temporary shutdown of a gas complex.
– Regional Toll –
Meanwhile, the Israeli military stated it had struck over 3,500 targets in Lebanon in the past month amid clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah.
It warned it would target two bridges in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa region to prevent the transfer of reinforcements and equipment.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported that 1,345 people have died and 4,040 were wounded since the start of the conflict, including 1,129 men, 91 women, and 125 children, among them 53 healthcare workers. Hezbollah has not disclosed its own casualties.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon reported that a recent blast injured three peacekeepers, marking the third such incident within a week. The origin of the explosion remains unknown.
The war’s economic repercussions extend far beyond the Middle East, as global energy and oil prices surge. In Lahore, Pakistan, fuel protests erupted after sudden price hikes, with protester Naveed Ahmed telling AFP, “The government, overnight, has dropped a ‘petrol bomb’ on its people.”
Meanwhile, the White House has submitted a proposal to Congress calling for a $1.5 billion increase in the US defence budget, a 42 percent rise, potentially the largest year-on-year Pentagon budget increase since World War II.
