Iranian authorities call on locals to search for US aircrew after downing a fighter jet, broadcasting images of wreckage and offering rewards.
TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have urged people in the country’s southwest to search for the crew of a downed US fighter jet.
State television broadcast images of what it said was the mangled wreckage of the plane on Friday.
The US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what would be the first known loss of a US jet inside Iran since the war began.
Iran’s Fars news agency reported that military forces had launched a search operation for the American pilot.
A local TV station in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province aired footage of twisted metal fragments it identified as plane wreckage in a truck.
Provincial police urged the area’s nomadic peoples and villagers to join the military hunt.
“If you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police and military forces, you will receive a valuable reward and bonus,” a channel reporter said.
This is the first report of a US fighter jet downed in Iran since the US and Israel launched a war on the Islamic republic on February 28.
Reports were unclear on the aircraft type, referring to both an F-35 and an F-15E fighter jet.
The New York Times quoted US and Israeli officials confirming Iran’s claim to have shot down a jet.
Other major American outlets reported that US forces had launched a rescue operation.
A Western fighter pilot told AFP that ejection over hostile territory requires hiding and signalling to comrades.
Pilots wear a vest with a radio/GPS beacon to transmit their position using code words, the anonymous pilot said.
The vest also contains water, food, a first-aid kit and a pistol for wilderness survival while evading enemy soldiers.
Last week, Iranian state media published footage purporting to show a missile targeting an F/A-18 over Chabahar.
The images showed the US jet flying away with no visible damage.