Iran has claimed shooting down two American military planes but US President Donald Trump quickly insisted that the pilot of the a ‘missing’ F-15E fighter jet has been rescued in a daring rescue deep inside Iran.
Another pilot, who manned another aircraft, had previously been rescued while another remained missing.

This is the first time that US aircraft had been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that “(we are) going to finish the job and we’re going to finish it very fast.”

One fighter jet was shot down while on a mission over the Persian Gulf while another crew member from that plane was rescued. However, a second was missing, and a US military search-and-rescue operation has been ordered to locate the serviceman.

Neither the White House nor the Pentagon released public information about the downed planes and queries by NBC News was declined by Trump who refused to discuss the search-and-rescue efforts. This, though, the US president said, would not affect negotiations with Iran.

“No, not at all. No, it’s war,” he cited nonchalant.

A Washington official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that it was not clear if the aircraft—an A-10 Thunderbolt—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.

Those incidents came as Iran fired on targets across the Middle East since Friday, keeping the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors despite US and Israeli insistence that Iran’s military capabilities have been all but destroyed.

Iran’s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz have roiled stock markets, sending oil prices skyrocketing and threatening to raise the cost of many basic goods, including food.