US special forces enter Iran in frantic bid to rescue missing airman after Iran downs two jets – as Tehran offers $60,000 reward to find him: Live updates
US special forces entered Iran late on Friday to rescue a missing crew member after two fighter jets were downed.
US forces are in a race against time to save a missing fighter jet pilot whose aircraft was shot down by Iranian air defences in a chaotic day of fighting – after a second American aircraft was also downed.
Iranian state media shared footage on Friday appearing to show a US A-10 Warthog plane being blown out of the sky, and reports say a second US aircraft, an F-15E Strike Eagle, was also downed hours earlier.
The joint incidents led two pilots to eject into enemy territory, and the F-15E pilot remains unaccounted for after US forces successfully saved the A-10 pilot in a daring rescue mission.
The whereabouts of the remaining US pilot was unknown on Friday, while Iranian media broadcast images of local militias engaged in a search operation.
Iranians have been offered a $60,000 bounty for his capture, while US President Donald Trump declined to comment on what he would do if the missing airman was harmed.
It is the first time US aircraft have been downed in the conflict, and came just two days after Trump said in a national address that the US has ‘beaten and completely decimated Iran’ and was ‘going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast.
The war, now entering its sixth week, is destabilising economies around the world as Iran responds to the US and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region’s energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Follow along for our live updates on the Middle East conflict.
Second Turkish-owned ship crosses Strait of Hormuz
A second Turkish-flagged ship has crossed the war-torn Strait of Hormuz, Turkey’s Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu has said.
Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key global waterway, since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran started on February 28, setting off the Middle East conflict and sending global oil and gas prices soaring.
Uraloglu said that on February 28, there were 15 ships belonging to Turkish shipowners waiting to go through the strategic strait.
‘Two of these 15 made the crossing,’ he told the private CNN Turk channel. ‘This is explained by our initiatives and also by the fact that they were using Iranian ports or carrying goods coming from or bound for Iran.’
Uraloglu did not say when the second ship crossed the strait. The first vessel had passed through, with Iranian permission, on March 13.
The two ships are the Rozana and Neraki, according to CNN Turk.
The minister said only nine of the blocked ships had sought permission to pass through the strait and that the transport and foreign ministries were trying to help them.
‘Four of them have not requested to leave. Two of them are power-generation vessels and are stationed on site. The other two are waiting for the situation to calm down,’ he added.
File photo: A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in the United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026.
Images show devastation across the Middle East as war enters its sixth week
A residential building that was damaged by recent strikes at Vahdat town on April 3, 2026 in Karaj, southwest of Tehran, Iran.
A view of the damaged B1 bridge, a day after it was destroyed by an airstrike, on April 3, 2026 west of Tehran in Karaj, Iran.
This video grab taken on April 3, 2026, from undated UGC images shared on social media on April 1, 2026, shows thick plumes of smoke rising following airstrikes in Baharestan, in Iran’s central Isfahan province.
This video grab, taken on April 3, 2026, from UGC images posted on social media on April 3, 2026, shows a US aircraft, followed by two helicopters, flying over the town of Zaras in southern Iran’s Khuzestan province.
Israeli security forces and first responders gather at the site of an Iranian strike that hit a residential building in Rosh HaAyin, Israel, on April 4, 2026.
A Houthi supporter holds up a poster of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a protest against the joint US-Israeli operation in Iran, in Sana’a, Yemen, 03 April 2026.
Missiles launched from Iran in response to attacks attributed to the United States and Israel are seen in the skies over Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine, on April 04, 2026.
Iran executes two men linked to opposition group
Iran on Saturday executed two men it said were convicted of links to an opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, and of carrying out armed attacks, domestic media reported.
The PMOI confirmed Saturday’s executions, saying in a statement that Iran was ‘trying to hide its weakness by executing political prisoners, especially PMOI members and supporters.’
Four PMOI members were executed earlier this week.
Explosions heard in southern Iran
Iranian Fars News Agency reports explosions at the Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Economic Zone – one of the largest and most critical industrial hubs in the Middle East – in southern Khuzestan province, with smoke rising from the area.
WATCH: Iranians appear to shoot at US rescue plane
This is the shocking moment Iranians appeared to shoot at a US rescue plane flying low over Iran after Iranian media claimed a US F-35 fighter jet was shot down.
IDF says it hit ‘key infrastructure’ in Tehran on Friday
The IDF says on Friday it ‘completed a ‘wave of strikes against terrorist regime infrastructure sites’ in Tehran.
‘These completed strikes are part of the ongoing phase of increasing damage to the Iranian terror regime’s core systems and foundations,’ the IDF adds.
The two US warplanes reportedly shot down by Iran
AnF-15E fighter jetwas down in southern Iran on Friday, which has left the US and Iran scrambling to find a missing American crew member.
The F-15E’s pilot has been rescued, but a weapons systems officer remains unaccounted for.
Iran claims it shot down a second US warplane, while US media say a A-10 Warthog was shot down, with its pilot ejecting over the Gulf and being subsequently rescued.
File photo: A US Air Force (USAF) F-15E Eagle fighter jet
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US special forces enter Iran in frantic bid to rescue missing airman after Iran downs two jets – as Tehran offers $60,000 reward to find him: Live updates
