Iran has claimed that it shot down a second US F-35 fighter jet over central parts of the country, according to a report by Mehr news agency, as cited by Reuters. The agency also said that survival of the pilot is unlikely.
Missiles fired at israel and gulf nations
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 West Asia.
Iran’s consulate in Mumbai shared a video of the F-35 jet on its 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.”
Kuwait refinery targeted by drones
Meanwhile, the Associated Press 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.
Trump warns of more strikes as conflict escalates
President Donald Trump, in his address on Thursday, said that US forces will keep hitting Iran “very hard” in the next two or three weeks.
Late on Thursday, he took to Truth Social to announce that Iran’s biggest bridge has been hit by US forces, sending this as a reminder to the Islamic Republic of the consequences if they did not say yes to his peace deal.
The Associated Press 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.
