Illustrative image. (U.S. Central Command)
An F-15E Strike Eagle of the United States Air Force reportedly crashed early on March 4 while carrying out a mission over southwestern Iran.
The news was reported by OSINTdefender, an X account specialized with open-source intelligence, which citied several direct sources.
The U.S.-based X account, which has more than two million followers, stated that the cause of the crash is still unknown, noting that at least one source attributed it to Iranian air defenses. Both the pilot and weapons system officer eject successfully over the Islamic Republic, according to the account.
“Following the crash, Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) elements with the U.S and Israeli Air Force – on standby in a neighboring country – were activated, entering Iran roughly an hour after the crash of the F-15,” OSINTdefender said in a post on March 5.
“In the resulting operation, both crewmembers were found and safely evacuated without further incident, being transported to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The Pilot and WSO are claimed to suffer minor injuries but were in otherwise ‘good condition,’ with both being airlifted for further treatment to Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan,” they added.
Further confirmation and details of the incident will come at a later time from the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), according to the account.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said on March 4 that an F-15 fighter jet was shot down over the Islamic Republic, without deliberating.
Also on the same day there were reports of unusual helicopter activities near the city of Karbala in central Iraq, with the government there reporting the death of the soldier and the injury of two others as a result of strikes and clashes. Footage posted online later shows what appears to be American and Israeli helicopter flying along with a fixed-wing aircraft at a low level near the city.
This could very well be the CSAR operation described by OSINTdefender. American and Israeli forces may have utilized some covert refueling point near Karbala during the operation, and clashed with Iraqi government forces there while on the ground, or responded to ground fire from the air.
The F-15E is a twin-engine, two-seat, all-weather multirole strike fighter derived from the F-15 Eagle, developed for long-range precision ground attacks while retaining strong air-to-air capability, with a top speed over Mach 2.5 and a large weapons payload. A single fighter jet of this type costs upwards of $90 million.
The U.S. Air Force lost three F-15Es on the third day of the war, March 2, in what CENTCOM later described as a friendly-fire incident over Kuwait.
A recent report by The Wall Street Journal revealed that all three fighter jets were shot down by a single Kuwaiti Air Force F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet that was on a drone hunting sortie. Iran claims, however, that the jets were downed by its air defenses.
On the same day the fourth F-15E was reportedly shot down over Iran, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) said that one of its F-35I Adir shot down a Russian-made Yak-130 trainer jet of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force over Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic.
The incident marks the first-ever downing of a manned aircraft by an F-35. The IAF released footage of the engagement on March 5.
The aerial battle over Iran is clearly heating up, and both sides are expected to take additional aerial losses as the war will likely go on for weeks.
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another f-15 fell from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the sky over iran. can’t have been shot down because the us and israel have established airspace dominance each day since the start of the conflict.
iran is at risk because iraq is no longer connected to lebanon. i hope you realize that putin and assad are traitors and iranians should be looking. trump needs to be held accountable in court because he needs to go to jail. he is a pedophile and pedophiles are ten centimeters under the floor in prison.
amerikunts are evacuating embassies from whole middle east. does this sound like winning? get ready for more pain jew bitch boys
what then? iranians are dying, that pedophile predatory group will return to their lairs as soon as the attacks are over.
dens have not been burned and wild boars can return.
5 x f15e down in this war. the end of the era for the eaglle have come…
russia must pay for iranian drones. putin must find and hang all alawite traitors.