Iran Downs Two U.S. Warplanes, Rescue Team Destroys Its Own Planes, Trump Threatens Power Grid

Iran shot down two U.S. military aircraft in separate incidents on Friday, the first American warplanes lost since the conflict began five weeks ago. One F-15E Strike Eagle went down over southwestern Iran; details on the second jet remain classified. A crew member from the F-15 was rescued after a frantic 48-hour mountain search, ending Tehran’s public bounty hunt for the missing pilot. During the extraction, the U.S. military was forced to destroy two of its own transport planes that developed mechanical problems on the rugged landing strip. A regional intelligence official told Fortune that extra aircraft had to be flown in to complete the mission after the initial transports were judged unflyable and then rigged with explosives to keep sensitive gear out of Iranian hands.

The CIA didn’t just get lucky. According to three U.S. officials briefed on the operation, the agency launched a rapid deception campaign inside Iran once the F-15 went down. Fake radio chatter and planted social-media posts claimed the American pilot had already been extracted from Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province. Iranian militias, believing they’d missed their prize, began scouring areas they had already written off. That movement lit up overhead surveillance and pointed rescue teams to a narrow limestone crevice where the pilot had wedged himself for two nights. “We sanded down the timeline so Tehran would panic and show us their search patterns,” one official said. The gambit worked: a drone caught heat signatures at dawn, and a Marine recon team fast-roped in two hours later.

The U.S. launched a full-scale search-and-rescue operation across Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, recovering the downed F-15 crew member after 48 hours. Iranian state media had offered $66,000 for the capture of the “enemy pilot” alive but canceled the reward once the American was confirmed safe. The operation took a messy turn when two C-130 transports suffered hydraulic failures on a makeshift dirt strip. With no way to fix them on site and night falling, troops packed the aircraft with thermite grenades and blew holes in the fuselages. Satellite images the next morning showed charred aluminum skeletons on the valley floor.

President Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran has until Tuesday to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on “power plants, bridges, and desalinization facilities.” In a separate interview with ABC News aired Sunday morning, he escalated further: “If they don’t make a deal, their whole country is gone.” Kuwaiti officials confirmed a nearby attack already knocked one desal plant offline, raising fears that civilian infrastructure is now fair game. Oil futures jumped 6 percent overnight and stock-index futures slid as traders priced in the possibility of a wider Gulf shutdown.