{"id":51603,"date":"2026-04-04T16:19:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/51603\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T16:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:19:19","slug":"iran-calls-on-public-to-find-enemy-pilot-as-us-continues-frantic-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/51603\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran calls on public to find \u2018enemy pilot\u2019 as US continues frantic search"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 The U.S. military pressed ahead Saturday in a frantic search for a missing pilot over a remote area in southwestern Iran, a day after the Islamic Republic<\/a> shot down a U.S. warplane and promised a reward for whoever turns in the pilot.<\/p>\n

The plane, identified by Iran as a F-15E Strike Eagle, was one of two attacked<\/a> Friday, with one service member rescued and at least one missing. It was the first time the United States lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the war, now in its sixth week, and could add to pressure on the Trump administration to end the fighting.<\/p>\n

The war, which began with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Feb. 28, has killed thousands, shaken global markets<\/a>, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices<\/a>. It shows no signs of slowing as Iran responds to ongoing airstrikes with attacks across the region.<\/p>\n

The downing of the American planes came two days after U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> said in a national address<\/a> that the United States has \u201cbeaten and completely decimated Iran.\u201d The U.S. and Israel recently boasted that Iran\u2019s air defenses were obliterated.<\/p>\n

But on Saturday, an apparent Iranian drone damaged the headquarters of U.S. technology company Oracle in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said that an airstrike hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a security guard and damaging a support building. It\u2019s the fourth time the facility has been targeted during the war.<\/p>\n

Survival training prepares U.S. fighter jet aircrews for enemy fire. (CNN, DVIDS, IRANIAN STATE MEDIA\/OBTAINED VIA X, TELEGRAM\/NOUR NEWS, SOCIAL MEDIA VIA X, OBIran signals willingness to join talks<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s top diplomat reiterated his government\u2019s willingness to join talks aimed at stopping the war. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that they \u201chave never refused to go to Islamabad.\u201d Last week, Pakistan said that it would soon host talks<\/a> between the U.S. and Iran.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told The Associated Press that his government\u2019s efforts to broker a ceasefire are \u201cright on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt are working to bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table in Pakistan, according to two regional officials. They said that they were working on a compromise to bridge the gap between the two sides\u2019 demands to stop the war and reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet to be finalized, the compromise includes a cessation of hostilities for a certain period to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.<\/p>\n

The U.N. Security Council is expected to take up the matter<\/a> of reopening the strait on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Iran hunts for \u2018enemy pilot\u2019<\/p>\n

The search for the American pilot focused on a mountainous region in Iran\u2019s southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.<\/p>\n

Neither the White House nor the Pentagon released information, but in an email from the Pentagon, obtained by the AP, the military said that it received notification of \u201can aircraft being shot down\u201d in the Middle East, without further details.<\/p>\n

A U.S. crew member was rescued. But the Pentagon notified the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member wasn\u2019t known.<\/p>\n

In a telephone interview with NBC News, Trump said that what happened wouldn\u2019t affect negotiations with Iran.<\/p>\n

Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces.<\/p>\n

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation said that it wasn\u2019t clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down. Neither the crew\u2019s status nor where it went down was immediately known.<\/p>\n

An anchor on a channel affiliated with Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any \u201cenemy pilot\u201d to the police, a first in the war. Iran previously made claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true.<\/p>\n

The surge in gas prices fueled by the war in Iran is driving an increased interest in electric vehicles. (CNN, TESLA, CHEVROLET, MEHR NEWS, TELEGRAM, POOL, MOREOracle\u2019s offices hit in Dubai<\/p>\n

An apparent Iranian drone damaged the Dubai headquarters of Oracle after Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm.<\/p>\n

Footage verified by the AP outside the United Arab Emirates showed a large hole in the building\u2019s southwestern corner.<\/p>\n

The sheikhdom\u2019s Dubai Media Office, which speaks for its government, noted a \u201cminor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade,\u201d saying there were no injuries.<\/p>\n

Oracle Corp., based in Austin, Texas, didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The Guard has accused some of the largest U.S. tech companies of being involved in \u201cterrorist espionage\u201d operations against the Islamic Republic and called them legitimate targets. Amazon Web Services facilities in the UAE and Bahrain were hit in earlier drone strikes.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s veiled threat to disrupt second waterway<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab-el-Mandeb.<\/p>\n

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It\u2019s one of the busiest choke points in global trade. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat share of global oil, LNG, wheat, rice, and fertilizer shipments transits the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait?\u201d Qalibaf wrote, referring to liquefied natural gas. \u201cWhich countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has greatly slowed the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing. Trump has alternately threatened Iran if it doesn\u2019t open the strait and told other nations to \u201cgo get your own oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.<\/p>\n

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members<\/a> have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,300 people have been killed<\/a> and there have been more than 1 million displaced people<\/a>. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Jon Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Magdy from Cairo. Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, and Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Will Weissert, Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finley in Washington, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 The U.S. military pressed ahead Saturday in a frantic search for a missing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5412,189,34,37,2530,3041,20853,5308,1983,392,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-51603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-ground","9":"tag-invasion","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-jets","13":"tag-killed","14":"tag-pilots","15":"tag-saturday","16":"tag-troops","17":"tag-trump","18":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116347349403415977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}