US fighter jet shot down over Iran, search under way for crew member, US officials say

A US fighter jet has been shot down over Iran and search-and-rescue efforts have so far recovered one of two crew members who ejected, a US official told Reuters , in the first known incident of its kind in the nearly five-week-old war. The Pentagon and US Central Command did not respond to requests for comment. The prospect of a US pilot being alive and on the run inside Iran raises the stakes for the United States in a conflict that, according to opinion polls, has struggled to win popular support among Americans. It also presents a challenge to the US military, which faces the twin goals of trying to save the life of an American behind enemy lines while safeguarding anyone involved in perilous rescue missions. Iranian officials called on civilians to be on the lookout for survivors and have flooded social media with images that purport to show wreckage from the aircraft. Two US officials said the aircraft was an F-15E fighter jet, which has two seats: one for a pilot and the se...
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