Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf on Friday mocked the United States following reports that an American fighter jet went down over southwestern Iran.In a post on X, Ghalibaf said, “After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”
“Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses,” he added.The United States confirmed earlier that it had lost an F-15E fighter jet over Iran. The incident comes days after the Pentagon claimed that Iranian air defenses had been so degraded that American planes could fly unimpeded over the country, amid President Trump’s threat to bomb Iran “to the stone age where it belongs.”The fate of the jet’s two-member crew remains unclear, as US teams scrambled to mount a search and rescue operation before Iran could reach any survivors, according to unnamed officials cited by US media. Iranian media also claimed that a US helicopter sent on the mission was downed, while Tehran announced a $60,000 bounty for any citizen who locates the downed pilots.This marks the first known loss of a manned jet in the current operations, though US forces have faced other aircraft losses. Including a March 2 “friendly fire” incident involving Kuwaiti air defenses, the F-15E tally now stands at four. The US has also lost an E-3 Sentry AWACS plane on the ground on March 27 and more than a dozen unmanned MQ-9 Reaper drones. Iran has additionally claimed to have shot down at least one F-35 Lightning jet, though this has not been confirmed by the USThe conflict, which began on February 28, has resulted in rising casualties across multiple countries and heightened global concern, particularly over the Strait of Hormuz, where disruptions have sent oil prices sharply higher.Iran has been accused of targeting critical infrastructure across the Gulf, including a desalination plant in Kuwait and key energy facilities. Air defenses were also activated in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, while Israel reported incoming missile alerts.
