Iran claims shooting down second US F-35 fighter jet; Watch

Iran also fired missiles at Israel and some Gulf nations while explosions were heard in Tehran and the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday, as the US prepared to further reinforce its already significant military forces in the West Asia.

“A second US fifth-generation F-35 was struck and downed over central Iran by a new IRGC Aerospace Force air-defence system. Given the massive explosion on impact and during the crash, the pilot is unlikely to have ejected,” Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters Spokesman stated as quoted by Press TV.

Earlier, on March 19, Iran claimed to have become the first nation in the world to strike a US F-35 Lightning 2, one of the most valuable US aircraft and the backbone of the US’s fifth-generation warfighting capabilities.

Iran’s consulate in Mumbai shared the video of the F-35 jet on their X handle with a caption: “Another enemy F-35 hit and downed by our #indigenous defence systems. Iran is a force to be reckoned with.”

Meanwhile, AP reported that Iranian drones targeted Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery on Friday, triggering fires at the facility. State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. confirmed the attack, saying firefighting teams were deployed to bring the blaze under control. The company added that no injuries were reported.

Notably, the refinery has been hit multiple times during this ongoing war.

Late on Thursday, he took to Truth Social to announce that Iran’s biggest bridge has been hit by the US forces, sending this as a reminder to Islamic Republic of consequences if they did not say yes to his peace deal.

Also Read: Trump warns, again, with Iranian B1 bridge collapse clip, Iran says bring it on ‘desperate loser’

AP has reported the Navy’s 6th Fleet announcing that the largest American aircraft carrier in service sailed out of Split, in Croatia and ‘remains poised for full mission tasking in support of national objectives in any area of operation.”

Iran has increased the intensity of attacks on Gulf region energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing.

Former CIA director Bill Burns has described the US-Israeli war launched against Iran as ‘a war of choice’ that may have only further empowered the most hard-line elements within its theocracy.

Burns, a former State Department diplomat, made the observation in a podcast by Foreign Affairs magazine.

“This is a regime that is inept at many things like managing its economy, but it is designed to preserve itself and designed to repress its own people and designed to withstand even the decapitation of its senior leadership,” said Burns, who secretly negotiated with the Iranians ahead of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers during the Obama administration.

(With ANI inputs)