US says missing crew member from downed jet found

Iran’s internet blackout has become the world’s longest nation-scale internet shutdown on record, according to internet monitoring group Netblocks.

The monitor said Sunday that the internet blackout has lasted for 37 consecutive days.

“Iran’s internet blackout is now the longest nation-scale internet shutdown on record in any country, exceeding all other comparable incidents in severity,” NetBlocks said.

It noted that some countries had experienced intermittent or regional-level shutdowns over longer periods, and pointed out that North Korea had never been connected to the global internet.

Iranian authorities cut off the internet at the start of the war with the US and Israel on February 28. Since then, only a few authorized people in Iran have had access to the worldwide internet. Some have tried to circumvent the blackout by connecting via a VPN or Starlink, although doing so is punishable with jail time. 

Iran also saw widescale internet blackouts before the war during anti-government protests that were violently put down by the regime. 

US President Donald Trump has again threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges if Tehran doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

In an expletive-laden post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the “crazy bastards” would be “living in Hell” if the crucial waterway remained closed to ship traffic beyond his Monday deadline.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he wrote.

Trump issued a similar ultimatum two weeks ago, but extended the deadline twice after claiming there had been progress in negotiations with Iran. Tehran, meanwhile, has shown no sign of backing down.

Around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed through the strait before the US-Israel war with Iran broke out at the end of February. Iran has largely halted those energy shipments, with far-reaching consequences for the global economy and energy supplies.  

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has threatened to go after Iran’s leaders and target the country’s strategic assets if missile attacks on Israel continue.

“As long as missile fire continues to target Israeli civilians, Iran will pay a heavy price that will degrade and ultimately cripple its national infrastructure and the operational capacity of the regime,” Katz said in a video statement.

“At the same time, we will continue to pursue and neutralize the leadership of terror, and strike security targets and strategic assets throughout Iran,” he added.

The statement came after Iran said it would step up its attacks on oil and other civilian infrastructure sites if the US and Israel continued to strike Iranian civilian facilities.

Iran’s central military command was cited by state media as saying it had attacked a number of energy facilities in Israel and Gulf states after an Israeli airstrike struck Iran’s largest petrochemical complex on Saturday.

Key members of the OPEC+ oil cartel are meeting on Sunday to discuss lifting May production quotas as the US-Israeli war with Iran continues to disrupt oil markets.

Sources cited by the Reuters news agency ahead of the planned video conference said the alliance had already agreed in principle to raise the quotas by 206,000 barrels per day.

The increase would be largely theoretical, however, given that OPEC’s key members are unable to significantly ramp up production due to the war.

Since the conflict began on February 28, shipments of oil through the Strait of Hormuz have effectively been halted. Around a fifth of the world’s oil and much of its gas supply passed through the waterway before the crisis. Now, top producers such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq and Kuwait have been forced to curtail supplies.

Several Gulf countries have also seen their oil infrastructure damaged by missile and drone strikes.

Other countries, such as Russia, are not able to increase production due to Western sanctions and damage caused by the war with Ukraine.

The Iran war sent oil prices climbing to almost $120 a barrel last month. If the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked until mid-May, prices could climb to a record high of over $150, according to JPMorgan.

Officials from Iran and Oman have held a meeting to discuss options for ensuring safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, Oman’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

Tehran has closed the key oil and gas chokepoint to most vessels in response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign, sending energy prices soaring.

The ministry statement said deputy foreign ministers and experts from the two countries had met to look at “a number of visions and proposals” to ensure “smooth transit” through the waterway.

The talks come ahead of a Monday deadline imposed by US President Donald Trump for Iran to reopen the strait or face “devastating consequences.”

Oman has previously served as a mediator between the US and Iran.

Iranian drones struck government and energy facilities in Kuwait, local authorities said Sunday.

“Kuwaiti Air Defenses are currently responding to hostile missile and drone threats,” the country’s military posted on X, noting that any explosions heard were the result of air defence interceptions.

A drone hit an oil facility operated by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation with no injuries reported, according to local media.

But the drone attacks did result in “severe” damage to a number of oil and petrochemical facilities, which had been “subjected to a heinous Iranian attack and targeting involving the use of drones,” the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said.

It added that the attacks caused fires at several of those facilities.

Another Iranian drone caused “significant” damage to a building belonging to the Finance Ministry, the state news agency KUNA reported. There were also no reports of injuries.

In response to US-Israeli strikes, Iran has targeted Kuwait and other Gulf countries hosting US military forces.

More details are starting to emerge about the complex search and rescue mission to extract the US airman stranded in Iran after his jet was shot down. 

Here’s what else we’ve learned:

• Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos were tasked with recovering the missing crew member in an operation involving dozens of special forces personnel, and several dozen warplanes and helicopters, US media reported
• US attack aircraft reportedly dropped bombs and fired weapons, while the commandos engaged in firefights with Iranian forces 
• News outlet Axios said the airman, a weapons systems officer with the rank of colonel, was wounded after ejecting from the jet but was able to evade capture for more than a day
• According to the New York Times, he was equipped with a beacon and a secure communications device to coordinate with rescuers, as well as a pistol
• US reports said two of the planes intended for transporting the airman and the rescue crew to safety were unable to take off from a remote base in Iran and had to be destroyed to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands
• American forces then sent in three other transport planes to fetch them
• The Iranian military said the US had used an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan province in the operation
• A spokesman for Iran’s central military command said two US C-130 transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters had been destroyed during the mission, which he said had been ‘foiled’
• Before the rescue, the CIA reportedly launched a deception campaign inside Iran to spread word that US forces had already found the airman and were traveling overland to get him out of the country
• Two officials cited by CBS said the airman has been flown to Kuwait to receive treatment for his injuries

Six people from one family have been killed in an Israeli attack in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Hatta, Lebanon‘s state-run National News Agency (NNA) and AFP reported Sunday.

The Israeli military had earlier ordered the evacuation of the town.

A source from the Lebanese civil defense cited by AFP said the family had already been displaced and was waiting for a relative to pick them up so they could leave.

At least three other people were killed in another airstrike elsewhere in southern Lebanon on Sunday, NNA reported.

The information could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it had carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

The Iran-backed militia lobbed rockets at northern Israel on Sunday and also said it had fired a cruise missile at an Israeli warship off the Lebanese coast. 

In a statement, Hezbollah claimed the warship was “preparing to launch attacks on Lebanese territory.” 

There was no confirmation from Israel.

Lebanon was dragged into the war in the Middle East in early March when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli attack. Israel responded with airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground operation.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Sunday reiterated a call for negotiations with Israel to avoid the same level of destruction in his country’s south as seen in Gaza.

Egypt’s foreign minister has held separate phone calls with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi to discuss proposals for deescalating the US-Israel war with Iran.

In a statement Sunday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said top diplomat Badr Abdelatty also spoke with his Turkish and Pakistani counterparts, who are helping to mediate between the US and Iran.

The ministry said he discussed “ideas and proposals to achieve the required calm” and warned of an “unprecedented explosion” in the Middle East.

The phone calls come as US President Donald Trump‘s Monday deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz approaches.

Trump has threatened that “hell will reign down” on Iran if the crucial waterway remains closed.

Operations have been suspended at the Borouge petrochemical plant in the United Arab Emirates after multiple fires broke out following attacks on Sunday, authorities said.

According to the Gulf emirate’s media office, the blazes were caused by “falling debris following successful interceptions by air defense systems.”

It said no injuries had been reported and that production would be halted while damage at the facility was assessed.

The plant, located near the UAE’s western border with Saudi Arabia, is a joint venture of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Borealis of Australia.

Earlier Sunday, the UAE’s Defense Ministry said it was responding to missile and drone attacks from Iran.

Tehran has repeatedly targeted the UAE, a close US ally, with retaliatory attacks since the US and Israel began striking Iran in late February.

Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards have said US and Israeli aircraft were destroyed during a search and rescue mission to find a missing American airman on Iranian territory, the official Tasnim news agency reported.

“During a ​joint operation (Aerospace, Ground Force, ​Popular Units, ‌Basij and Police command), enemy aircraft were destroyed,” the ‌group said, according to Tasnim.

Earlier, Iran’s ‌police ​command announced an American C-130 aircraft had been downed in the south ​of Isfahan province.

The spokesperson of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s central military command, said the downed aircraft also included two Black ​Hawk ⁠helicopters, Tasnim reported.

Iran’s army also claimed it had shot down an Israeli drone in the same province.

US President Donald Trump announced the rescue of the stranded airman on Sunday morning, saying he was injured but “will be just fine.” He was the second crew member of an F-15 jet that was downed in Iran on Friday.

The United States says a crew member whose F-15E fighter jet was shot down by Iran has been rescued. 

Here is a recap of how the search and rescue operation unfolded:

• Two US aircraft, an F-15E and A-10 ‘Warthog’, were shot down on Friday
• The F-15E had two crew on board, one of whom was rescued while the other was missing
• The US launched a search and rescue mission to locate the missing airman
• Iran also scrambled to find the American service member, offering a bounty to whoever located him
• The lone pilot of the A-10 was also rescued
• The search for the missing airman continued throughout Saturday
• On Sunday morning, US officials, including President Donald Trump, said the crew member had been rescued
• Trump said he had sustained injuries but would be ‘just fine’
• The US president said he had deployed ‘dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him’
• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said a US aircraft involved in the search was destroyed, despite Trump claiming that the rescue had not caused any US casualties

Israel has been carrying out strikes across Lebanon since the start of its joint operation with the US against Iran.

Israel says it is targeting the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, which has a stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Israeli military struck Hezbollah infrasture on Saturday.

Lebanon was pulled into the conflict in the Middle East on March 2 when Hezbollah — which functions as a proxy of Tehran, its largest benefactor — launched attacks on Israel in response to the US-Israel strikes on Iran. 

US President Donald Trump on Sunday lauded himself and the US military while announcing that the second crew member from a US fighter jet downed in Iran had been found “safe and sound.” 

In a statement on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the airman, whom he said was a colonel, had been located in “treacherous mountainous terrain” and recovered despite being “hunted down” by Iranian forces.

The airman was “never truly alone,” Trump wrote, saying he and senior military leaders had monitored the situation round-the-clock.

Trump added that, at his direction, the “US military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the world,” to retrieve the downed airman.

He also confirmed that another crew member had been rescued earlier.

Trump said both rescues were carried out without any US casualties and that it proved the US’ “overwhelming air dominance” over Iran.

Contrary to those claims, however, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said a US aircraft involved in the search operation was destroyed in southern Isfahan, state-affiliated Tasnim news agency reported.

Trump had similarly claimed during an address on Wednesday to the American people — two days before the US planes were shot down — that Iran had been “completely decimated” and that its “navy is gone, their air force is in ruins.”

A US service member missing since Iran shot down an F-15E fighter jet has been rescued, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday.

The airman had been missing since Friday, when Iran downed the aircraft. A second crew member was rescued earlier.

The recovery follows an intensive search-and-rescue operation.

Trump lauded the efforts of the US military in locating and rescuing the airman.

“At my direction, the US Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him. He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. 

“WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND!” the US president added.

An Al Jazeera report, citing an unnamed US official, said the weapons officer had been rescued after a “heavy firefight.”