United States and Iran engaged in a race to search for crashed American aviator

The United States and Iran are engaged in a race on Saturday, April 4 to find one of the two occupants of the first American plane to crash on Iranian territory since the beginning of the war. The Iranian army claimed to have shot down the plane, an F-15E fighter bomber. American media reports, on the other hand, state that one of the two pilots ejected in flight and was extracted during a special forces raid in southwest Iran, while the fate of the second remains unknown.

Five weeks after the start of the war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28 against the Islamic Republic, which has caused thousands of deaths mostly in Iran and Lebanon, this is a serious setback for the American aviation. Especially since the Iranian army claimed to have hit another American plane, a close air support A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft, which crashed in the Gulf. The New York Times had previously reported the fall of an American plane near the Strait of Hormuz, adding that its lone pilot was rescued unharmed.

Donald Trump briefed After a long silence, the White House simply stated that the American president had been “briefed” on the loss of an aircraft in southwest Iran. In an interview with NBC, Donald Trump assured that it “changes nothing at all” in potential negotiations with Tehran to find a resolution to a conflict that is shaking the global economy.

Since the beginning of the war, no American soldier has been killed or captured on Iranian soil, but 13 have died in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

The F-15E was destroyed by an anti-aircraft defense system of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, a spokesperson for the Iranian armed forces said. “Further searches are ongoing,” he said.

A generous reward The New York Times and the Washington Post claim to have authenticated photos and videos circulating on social media and in Iranian media of American helicopters and aircraft flying at low altitude over the area. The Iranian state television station in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad region (southwest) broadcast images presented as those of the wreckage, promising a “generous reward” to anyone who delivers the pilots.

Houston Cantwell, a former American Air Force pilot, explained to AFP that during operations like those carried out against Iran, special forces are kept on high alert to rescue downed pilots in enemy territory.

“It provides great peace of mind to know that they will do everything possible to come and get you,” he said, adding, “At the same time, they won’t engage in a suicide mission.”

According to him, the priority for a pilot in this situation is “first of all to hide” and find the best possible place to wait for extraction, like a clearing or the roof of a building.

Retaliation Meanwhile, Iran continues its missile and drone strikes against Israel and the Gulf monarchies, allies of the United States, in retaliation for attacks on its soil and in response to Donald Trump’s threats to devastate its infrastructure.

Israel, on the other hand, again bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, seen as a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement on Saturday. One person was slightly injured early Saturday by shards of glass in the Tel Aviv suburb, according to rescue services, after an alert for Iranian missiles. In Bahrain, debris from intercepted drones injured four people slightly and caused material damage, according to authorities.

In Tehran, an AFP journalist heard several powerful explosions on Saturday morning from the north of the city, an area targeted the day before by intensive strikes. Donald Trump threatens to target Iranian civilian infrastructure such as power plants, although this could expose the United States to accusations of war crimes.