WASHINGTON/ TEHRAN: One US crew member was rescued after Iran shot down a warplane on Friday, Israeli and US media reported, as the war looked set to intensify with US President Donald Trump threatening more attacks on civilian infrastructure, and asking US lawmakers to approve a massive $1.5 trillion defence budget for 2027.
Two US sources told Reuters the downed plane was a two-seat F-15E and a search was underway. 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.
Israeli media cited Israeli officials as saying one pilot had been rescued. US broadcaster CBS News reported the same, citing two US officials.
A local official television station in Iran’s southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province aired footage of what it said was wreckage of the downed plane.
”Dear and honourable people of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, if you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police and military forces, you will receive a valuable reward and bonus,” said an Iranian television reporter on the official local channel.
Iranian news agencies said US helicopters were flying low on apparent search missions and carried videos of residents shooting at them. The Iranian military earlier reported the downed aircraft was an F-35, a single-seater. The Pentagon and US Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that unconfirmed reports indicate that a US pilot may have been captured by Iranian forces after ejecting from an advanced fighter jet that the IRGC says it downed over central Iran on Friday. According to a Tasnim correspondent in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province in western Iran, based on some information, following the destruction of the advanced American fighter jet by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) earlier on Friday, the pilot ejected and landed inside the country. The correspondent added that there are indications the Americans, believing the pilot might be alive, attempted to extract him from Iran’s borders. However, some sources say the pilot has likely been captured by Iranian forces.
Separately, the New York Times reported that a second US jet—an A-10 “tankbuster” ground attack plane—had crashed near the Strait of Hormuz and that the lone pilot was safely rescued.
President Trump Friday asked US lawmakers to approve a massive $1.5 trillion defence budget for 2027, as the United States faces rising costs from its war with Iran and mounting global security commitments. The proposal would lift Pentagon spending by more than 40 percent in a single year—the sharpest increase since World War II.
US media—citing closed-door congressional briefings—have reported that the Iran war could be costing as much as $2 billion a day, underscoring the scale of the burden even before longer-term reconstruction and resupply costs are factored in.
To offset part of the increase, Trump is proposing around $73 billion in cuts to non-defense spending—roughly 10 percent—“reducing or eliminating woke, weaponized and wasteful programs, and by returning State and local responsibilities to their respective governments.”
Democrats swiftly attacked the proposal, with the party’s Senate budget leader Patty Murray warning it prioritised military spending over Americans´ needs and accusing Trump of pursuing “reckless foreign wars.”
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the US military “hasn´t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!”, after US strikes damaged Iran’s tallest bridge.
Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned that, in response to Trump’s threats to attack infrastructure, Iran would increase its own attacks on energy sites in the region.
A drone attack on a refinery owned by Kuwait’s national oil company on Friday sparked fires at several of its units, state media said.
Later, an Iranian attack damaged a power and desalination complex, Kuwait’s water and electricity ministry said.
In Abu Dhabi, a gas complex shut after a fire broke out, following an attack that resulted in “falling debris” upon interception, the government media office said.
One Egyptian citizen was killed and four people, including two Pakistanis, suffered minor injuries after debris from intercepted attack fell on Abu Dhabi’s Habshan gas facilities.
Emirates Global Aluminium said it could take up to a year before it can resume full production, after its Abu Dhabi site was damaged by an Iranian missile attack.
The UK deployed a counter-drone system known as Rapid Sentry to Kuwait, as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday condemned a “reckless” overnight drone attack on a Kuwaiti oil refinery.
Israel and the United States appear to be widening their targets beyond military, security and administrative infrastructure.
Health, educational and most recently transport infrastructure have been hit in the past days.
Iran’s Mehr news agency, citing the Iranian Red Crescent, reported a strike on a laser and plasma research facility of the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on Friday.
The university said in a statement that a “significant part of this center was destroyed” while calling it an attack on “reason, research, and freedom of thought”.
Israel has targeted the Imam Hossein University and the Malek-Ashtar University, claiming both were being used for military research.
The World Health Organisation warned about “multiple attacks on health” in Iran in recent days following an airstrike on the Pasteur Institute in Tehran.
The Israeli military said it had launched a wave of strikes in Tehran on Friday, alongside parallel attacks in Beirut.
Iran warned the UN Security Council against any “provocative action”. “Any provocative action by the aggressors and their supporters, including in the UN Security Council regarding the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, will only complicate the situation,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
Araghchi was speaking ahead of a scheduled Security Council vote on a draft resolution mandating a force to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz Friday.
It was later announced that the vote was postponed, with no new date scheduled.
President Donald Trump said that the United States could “open” the Hormuz Strait and “take the oil” if it has more time.
”With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A ´GUSHER´ FOR THE WORLD???” Trump posted.
The message, on his Truth Social platform, did not explain how the United States could end Iranian control over the Hormuz waterway or what oil Trump was referring to.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in remarks made public Friday said his country could help unblock the Strait of Hormuz.
”No one has involved us specifically in the issue of the Strait of Hormuz. During my visits, I told representatives of the Middle East and Gulf countries: Ukraine is ready to help with everything related to defence,” Zelensky said.
In a separate interview, Zelensky said reopening the strait would require drone interceptors, military convoys and electronic warfare.
Three tankers, including one co-owned by a Japanese company, crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday by hugging close to Oman’s shore, a rare transit route as Iran maintains a chokehold on the key war-torn passageway.
Nato chief Mark Rutte will meet Donald Trump next week on a visit to Washington, as the US president lashes out at the alliance over the Iran war, NATO said Friday.
Trump has suggested he is considering quitting the 77-year-old military alliance due to the response by European nations to his war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli strikes have destroyed about 70 percent of Iran’s steel production capacity, significantly hindering its ability to manufacture weapons.
Israel is using AI to fine-tune air raid alert system. During the war in the Gaza Strip and two wars with Iran in the space of a year, Israel has used artificial intelligence to fine-tune its missile early warning system. In last year’s 12-day conflict with Iran, incoming missiles would spark city-wide air raid alerts, and Israelis would have to rush for cover, often several times a day.
But now the systems that warn of an impending attack have become increasingly more sophisticated and localised.
Israel said Friday it was under attack from a new barrage of Iranian missiles. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Israeli emergency services reported some damage to houses and cars from an unintercepted cluster missile, while Israeli military radio said a train station in Tel Aviv was damaged by shrapnel.
France has demanded Iran free a prize-winning rights lawyer arrested this week in what activists say is a crackdown during the war with Israel and the United States.
”France calls for the immediate release of Nasrin Sotoudeh and all those arbitrarily detained in Iran,” the foreign ministry’s spokesman said.
Pope Leo XVI spoke on Friday with the presidents of Israel and Ukraine, discussing the ongoing wars and the need for peace.
The American-born pontiff spoke by telephone with Israel’s Isaac Herzog and, separately, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the humanitarian situation in each war zone was discussed, the Vatican said.
Human remains have been found aboard a cargo ship struck by Iran while transiting the Strait of Hormuz last month, the vessel’s owner said Friday, after three crew members were reported missing following the attack.
The United Nations force in Lebanon said a blast at one of its positions wounded three peacekeepers on Friday, the third such incident in a week, as more Israeli strikes hit south Beirut.
The US embassy in Lebanon, where the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militant group is at war with Israel, said on Friday that Iran and allied groups could seek to target universities in the country. The Israeli military said it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon since fighting with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militants began.
