Iran claims F-35 shot down; US confirms emergency landing, says pilot safe

TEHRAN (MNTV) – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced Thursday that it had struck and seriously damaged an American F-35 fighter jet over central Iran, in what Tehran is framing as one of the most significant air defense achievements of the ongoing conflict.

Washington confirmed an emergency landing but stopped well short of acknowledging any Iranian role in bringing the aircraft down.

The IRGC said its air defense systems engaged the F-35 at approximately 2:50 a.m. local time Thursday.

While describing the jet as having sustained serious damage, the Corps acknowledged that the aircraft’s ultimate fate remained under investigation, adding that there was a strong possibility it had crashed.

The IRGC also stated that the strike followed the successful interception of more than 125 US-Israeli drones, presenting the incident as evidence of major advances in Iran’s integrated air defense network.

Hours later, U.S. Central Command offered a terse and carefully worded response, stating that an F-35 had conducted an emergency landing at a regional American airbase following a combat mission over Iran.

The dueling accounts are characteristic of the information fog that has enveloped the conflict since the joint U.S.-Israeli offensive on Iran began on February 28 — a campaign that has so far claimed an estimated 1,300 lives, among them former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iran has responded with successive waves of drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf states hosting American military assets, inflicting casualties and infrastructure damage while rattling global markets and disrupting international aviation.

With neither side offering a complete picture, the question of what exactly happened over central Iranian airspace on Thursday morning remains, for now, unanswered.