- Aircraft landed safely at an American base; pilot reported in stable condition.
- Comes amid an ongoing conflict involving the US-Israeli offensive against Iran.
- Several US aircraft losses were reported, although none were previously linked to Iran’s fire.
A US F-35 stealth warplane was hit by suspected Iranian fire and made an emergency landing at a US air base in the Middle East, US media reported on Thursday.
“The plane landed safely and the pilot is in stable condition,” Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command, said in a statement without confirming the reports from outlets including ABC and CNN.
“This incident is under investigation,” Hawkins added.
The U.S. has lost several aircraft during the conflict — including three F-15s mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti forces and a KC-135 refueling plane that crashed in Iraq — but none known to have been hit by Iranian fire.
The US and Israel launched a massive air campaign against Iran following a major build-up of US military forces – including F-35s – in the region.
Thirteen US service members have been killed since the start of the operation on February 28: six in the KC-135 crash and seven in Iranian strikes early in the war.
About 200 US military personnel have also been wounded in seven countries in the Middle East since the start of the war, most of whom have already returned to duty, according to the US military.
Meanwhile, a US official and three other people familiar with the planning told Reuters that Trump was considering sending thousands more US troops to the Middle East as a war that has so far killed more than 2,000 people continued to rage.
But on Thursday, Trump said he had no plans to deploy ground forces. “I’m not putting troops anywhere,” he said.
Netanyahu said later Thursday that Israel acted alone in bombing Iran’s South Pars gas field and confirmed that Trump asked Israel to suspend such attacks.
Iran is being “decimated” and no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles after 20 days of US-Israeli airstrikes, but a revolution in the country would not come from the air and would require a “ground component”, he said without elaborating.
As the Israeli leader spoke, Iran launched a new wave of missiles at his country, according to Israel’s military and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
