The Iranian military on Sunday claimed to have shot down an ‘enemy’ F-15 over the country’s southern coast and near Hormuz Island using its air defence system. The latest attack, if confirmed, would mark at least half a dozen American jets struck or shot down by Iran in the ongoing conflict against US.
The advanced F-15 fighter jet was struck using Iranian air defense force’s ground-to-air systems, Iran’s Fars News reported.
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The Iranian media also uploaded a video that claimed to show the air defence system successfully locking the F-15 fighter jet. However, there is no confirmation from the manufacturing country, the US, nor from the allies in the Middle East. Apart from the US, other Middle East nations, including Saudi Arabia, Israel and Qatar have F-15s as part of its air defence.
The latest attack comes days after Iran claimed to have become the first nation to strike a US F-35 Lightning 2, a fifth-generation jet touted as the one of the most advanced jets. A CNN report, citing US defence officials, confirmed that an F-35 did perform an emergency landing, adding that the pilot ejected safely and an investigation was underway.
Fourth F-15 shot down in US-Iran war
The latest incident is the fourth incident involving an F-15 fighter in the four weeks of conflict in the Middle East.
On March 1, three F-15E “Strike Eagle” jets were mistakenly shot down in separate incidents by Kuwaiti air defences. According to CENTCOM, the aircraft were “mistakenly shot down” by Kuwaiti forces during operations.
Apart from the F-15 and F-35, a US refueling aircraft, KC-135, also crashed after “unspecified incident” involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace”, the US military earlier said.
The Iranian military also claimed to have targeted an Israeli F-16 fighter jet over the country’s centre using surface-to-air missile.
