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Iran shot down a U.S. warplane on Friday, setting off a search by both sides for surviving crew as the war looked set to intensify with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening more attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was combing an area near where the plane came down in southwestern Iran. The regional governor promised a commendation for anyone who captured or killed the pilot.
A U.S. military official confirmed that a fighter jet had been shot down and a search was under way.
Iranian news agencies said U.S. helicopters were flying low on apparent search missions and carried videos of residents shooting at them.
There were no confirmed details of the searches or the type of aircraft shot down, which the Iranian military said was an F-35, a single-seater. The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The loss underlined the risk still faced by U.S. and Israeli aircraft over Iran, despite assertions by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that their forces had total control of the skies.
Nearly five weeks after the U.S. and Israel opened the campaign with a wave of strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there is no sign of an end to the war, which has already killed thousands and threatened lasting damage to the global economy.
On Thursday, Trump posted footage on social media showing dust and smoke billowing up as U.S. strikes hit the newly constructed B1 bridge between Tehran and nearby Karaj, which was due to open this year, and said more attacks would follow.
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“Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!,” he wrote in a subsequent post.
Despite the pressure, Iran has been able to hit back at Israel and strike Gulf countries allied to the U.S., which have so far held back from joining the war directly for fear of further escalation.
On Friday, as Trump threatened to hit its bridges and power plants, Iran struck a power and water plant in Kuwait, underlining the vulnerability of Gulf States that rely heavily on desalination plants for drinking water.
Trump urged Iran’s leaders to seek peace, saying on social media that Iran “knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!.”
But Tehran has shown no sign of acquiescence and Trump faces growing pressure to find a quick resolution, with anger building at home and his Republican Party in danger of losing control of Congress at elections in November.
Negotiations conducted via intermediaries with new leaders in Iran have shown little sign of progress, and polls indicate most Americans oppose the war.
‘Take the oil and make a fortune’
At the same time, the economic impact has been global, with Iran’s grip on the strategic shipping lane in the Strait of Hormuz giving it a choke hold on oil and gas.
Trump has expressed anger at U.S. allies that have refused his calls to help re-open the strait, through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied gas passes in normal times. On Friday, he said reopening it would not be difficult.
“With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL,& MAKE A FORTUNE,” he said on Truth Social.
The U.S. and Israel say they have degraded Iran’s military capacity. But Iranian media have issued daily reports of attacks on civilian sites too, including schools, pharmaceutical suppliers and health facilities. On Thursday, the century-old Pasteur Institute in the heart of Tehran was severely damaged, the Health Ministry said.
On Friday, a drone hit a Red Crescent relief warehouse in the Choghadak area of the southern Bushehr province.
Over 100 American international law experts said the conduct of U.S. forces and statements by senior U.S. officials “raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes.”
For its part, Iran has continued to strike targets around the Gulf.
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said its Mina al-Ahmadi refinery had been hit by drones. Other attacks were also reported to have been intercepted in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Missile debris landed near the Israeli port of Haifa, site of a major oil refinery.
Global financial markets have whipsawed in response to expectations of a possible end to the war and the re-opening of the Strait, which only isolated vessels have been able to transit.
The closure has also squeezed shipments of fertilizer, threatening a humanitarian crisis in developing countries in Asia and Africa, underlined by data showing a sharp rise in global food prices in March.
On Friday, a container ship belonging to the French shipping group CMA CGM passed through, MarineTraffic vessel tracking data showed, a sign that Iran may not consider France hostile. A liquefied natural gas ship belonging to Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines also transited.
Oil markets were closed after benchmark U.S. crude prices gained 11% on Thursday following a speech by Trump that offered no clear sign of an imminent end to the war.
The U.N. Security Council is set to vote on Saturday on a Bahraini resolution to protect commercial shipping in and around the strait, diplomats said, but veto-wielding China made clear its opposition to authorizing armed intervention.
