{"id":381749,"date":"2026-04-04T14:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/381749\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T14:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:27:10","slug":"us-searches-for-missing-crew-member-as-iran-urges-public-to-find-enemy-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/381749\/","title":{"rendered":"US searches for missing crew member as Iran urges public to find \u2018enemy pilot\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US military is pressing ahead with a frantic search for a missing pilot over a remote area in south-western Iran, after the Middle Eastern country shot down an American warplane and called on people to turn the pilot in, promising a reward.<\/p>\n

The plane, identified by Iran as a US F-15E Strike Eagle, was one of two attacked on Friday, with one service member rescued and at least one missing.<\/p>\n

It is the first time the United States has lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the war, now in its sixth week, and could mark a new turning point in the campaign.<\/p>\n

The conflict, launched by the US and Israel on February 28, has rippled across the region.<\/p>\n

It has so far killed thousands, upended global markets, cut off key shipping routes, spiked fuel prices and shows no signs of slowing as Iran responds to US and Israeli air strikes with attacks across the region.<\/p>\n

Missile and drone strikes continued on Saturday, with an apparent Iranian drone damaging the headquarters of the US tech giant Oracle in Dubai.<\/p>\n

The downing of the military planes came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the US has \u201cbeaten and completely decimated Iran\u201d and was \u201cgoing to finish the job, and we\u2019re going to finish it very fast\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US and Israel had boasted recently that Iran\u2019s air defences were decimated.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military said Iran had launched missiles towards the country.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said on social media that an air strike hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a security guard and damaging a support building.<\/p>\n

It is the fourth time the facility has been targeted during the war.<\/p>\n

\"Map(PA Graphics)\n<\/p>\n

Also on Saturday, Iran\u2019s top diplomat reiterated his government\u2019s willingness to join talks aimed at stopping the war.<\/p>\n

Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said they \u201chave never refused to go to Islamabad\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pakistan said last week that it would soon host talks between the US and Iran, but it is not clear when or if they will take place.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s search for the pilot focused on a mountainous region in the country\u2019s south-western province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.<\/p>\n

Neither the White House nor the Pentagon released public information about the downed planes.<\/p>\n

In an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, meanwhile, the military said it received notification of \u201can aircraft being shot down\u201d in the Middle East, without providing more details.<\/p>\n

A US crew member from that plane was rescued.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A US military search-and-rescue operation continued on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran would not be affected by the incident (Alex Brandon, Pool\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

In a brief telephone interview with NBC News on Friday, Mr Trump declined to discuss the search-and-rescue efforts but said what happened would not affect negotiations with Iran.<\/p>\n

Separately, Iranian state media said a US A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defence forces.<\/p>\n

A US official said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved.<\/p>\n

Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it went down was immediately known.<\/p>\n

An anchor on a TV channel affiliated with Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any \u201cenemy pilot\u201d to the police.<\/p>\n

Throughout the war, Iran has made a series of claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Iranian flag hangs from the roof of a residential building damaged by recent US-Israeli strikes in Fardis, west of Tehran, Iran (Vahid Salemi\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

Friday was the first time the Iranian public was urged to look for a downed pilot.<\/p>\n

Iranian state media said in a post on the social platform X its military shot down a US F-15E Strike Eagle.<\/p>\n

The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a pilot and a weapons system officer.<\/p>\n

An apparent Iranian drone damaged the Dubai headquarters of the American tech giant Oracle on Saturday after Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm.<\/p>\n

The attack targeted the headquarters, which sit along Dubai\u2019s main Sheikh Zayed Road.<\/p>\n

Footage obtained by The Associated Press from outside the United Arab Emirates (UAE) showed damage to the building.<\/p>\n

A large hole could be seen in the building\u2019s southwestern corner, with the \u201ce\u201d in \u201cOracle\u201d on a neon sign damaged.<\/p>\n

\"AA newly constructed bridge struck by US air strikes in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran (Vahid Salemi\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

The sheikhdom\u2019s Dubai Media Office, which speaks for its government, said it was a \u201cminor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade of the Oracle building in Dubai Internet City\u201d, adding there were no injuries.<\/p>\n

Oracle, based in Austin, Texas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The guard has accused some of America\u2019s largest tech companies of being involved in \u201cterrorist espionage\u201d operations against the Islamic Republic and said they were legitimate targets.<\/p>\n

Earlier Iranian drone strikes hit Amazon Web Services facilities in both the UAE and Bahrain.<\/p>\n

In a social media post late on Friday, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, issued a veiled threat to disrupt traffic through the Bab-el-Mandeb, a second strategic waterway.<\/p>\n

The strait, 32 kilometres (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

\"DestroyedDestroyed houses that were hit in an Israeli air strike in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon (Hussein Malla\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat share of global oil, LNG, wheat, rice, and fertilizer shipments transits the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait?\u201d Mr Qalibaf wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has already greatly disturbed the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy.<\/p>\n

World leaders are struggling to end Iran\u2019s stranglehold on the strait as the UN Security Council is expected to take up the matter on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump has vacillated on America\u2019s role in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it does not open the waterway and telling other nations to \u201cgo get your own oil\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Map(PA Graphics)\n<\/p>\n

On Friday, he said in a post on social media: \u201cWith a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.<\/p>\n

In a review released on Friday, the US-based group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites \u201crather than indiscriminate bombardment\u201d of urban areas.<\/p>\n

More than two dozen people have died in Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 US service members have been killed.<\/p>\n

In Lebanon, more than 1,300 people have been killed and more than one million displaced.<\/p>\n

Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US military is pressing ahead with a frantic search for a missing pilot over a remote area…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-381749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}