Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps claimed on Friday that a second US F-35 fighter jet had been destroyed over central Iran by what it described as a "new advanced defence system" operated by its Aerospace Force.
Shortly after the announcement, Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported that US forces had launched a search and rescue operation to recover the pilot, who had ejected from the aircraft and landed inside Iranian territory.
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According to Tasnim, sources in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province in western Iran confirmed that American forces had been conducting a recovery operation since earlier in the day.
The agency reported that the operation involved Black Hawk helicopters and a C-130 Hercules aircraft, but said efforts to locate the pilot had so far been unsuccessful.
The IRGC stated that the downed aircraft belonged to the Lakenheath squadron — a US Air Force base in the United Kingdom — and said the jet had been "completely destroyed" and had crashed following the strike.
The Corps described the aircraft as an "intruding fighter jet" and said its Aerospace Force's advanced defence system was responsible for bringing it down.
Tasnim's correspondent cited sources suggesting that Iranian forces may have already captured the American pilot, even as US forces continued search efforts near the border.
"Some sources say the pilot has likely been captured by Iranian forces," the agency reported, adding that the Americans appeared to believe the pilot might still be alive when they launched the extraction attempt.
The fate of the pilot and the full circumstances surrounding the incident had not been independently verified at the time of reporting.