After Trump announces "pilot rescue"… Iran claims it shot down a U.S. aircraft

IRGC: "U.S. aircraft shot down south of Isfahan"

Iran claimed it shot down a U.S. aircraft that was tracking the pilot of a U.S. F-15 fighter jet. The announcement came shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump said one of the downed jet’s crew members had been rescued.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported on the 5th (local time), citing the public relations office of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), that “by the grace of Allah, a U.S. enemy aircraft tracking the pilot of the downed fighter jet was shot down by Islamic fighters south of Isfahan.”

Iran made the statement shortly after President Donald Trump said one officer who had been aboard a U.S. F-15 fighter jet shot down in Iran had been rescued. On Truth Social, Trump said that on his orders, “the U.S. military deployed dozens of aircraft armed with the world’s most lethal weapons to rescue him,” adding that the officer was injured but “will recover soon.”

It is not yet clear whether the “enemy aircraft” Iran says it downed was one of the dozens of aircraft deployed for the rescue, or whether the rescue succeeded but the U.S. suffered another loss.

The rescued officer is one of two crew members of the F-15 fighter jet that Iran claimed its air defenses shot down on the 3rd. The U.S. military subsequently launched search-and-rescue operations using assets including a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and HH-60 helicopters, rescuing one of the pilots first.

Rescuing the pilot from the crashed fighter jet was seen as an important “turning point” for both the U.S. and Iran. A captured pilot could become a target for intelligence gathering and propaganda. If Iran were to secure the pilot, it could gain leverage in future negotiations.

Park Subin, Hankyung.com reporter waterbean@hankyung.com