- Plane landed safely at a US base; The pilot was reported in stable condition.
- It comes amid the ongoing conflict involving the US and Israeli offensive against Iran.
- Several US aircraft losses were reported, although none previously linked to the Iranian fire.
A US F-35 stealth fighter jet was hit by suspected Iranian fire and made an emergency landing at a US air base in the Middle East, US media reported on Thursday.
“The plane landed safely and the pilot is in stable condition,” Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the US Central Command, said in a statement, without confirming reports from media such as ABC and CNN.
“This incident is under investigation,” Hawkins added.
The United States has lost multiple aircraft during the conflict, including three F-15s mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti forces and a KC-135 refueling plane that crashed in Iraq, but none known to have been hit by Iranian fire.
The United States and Israel launched a massive air campaign against Iran following a major buildup of US military forces, including F-35s, in the region.
Thirteen U.S. service members have died since the start of the operation on February 28: six in the KC-135 crash and seven in Iranian attacks early in the war.
About 200 U.S. service members have also been wounded in seven Middle Eastern countries since the start of the war, most of whom have since returned to duty, according to the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, a U.S. official and three other people familiar with the planning told Reuters that Trump was considering sending thousands more U.S. troops to the Middle East as he continued a war that has so far killed more than 2,000 people.
But on Thursday, Trump said he had no plans to deploy ground forces. “I’m not sending troops anywhere,” he said.
Netanyahu said later Thursday that Israel acted alone in the bombing of the South Pars gas field in Iran and confirmed that Trump asked Israel to postpone such attacks.
Iran is being “decimated” and no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or manufacture ballistic missiles after 20 days of US and Israeli airstrikes, but a revolution in the country would not come from the air and would require a “land component,” he said, without giving further details.
As the Israeli leader spoke, Iran launched a new wave of missiles toward his country, according to the Israeli military and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
