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One crew member was rescued Friday after an American aircraft was shot down in Iran, according to one U.S. and one Israeli official, who both spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive ongoing military operations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The rescue occurred as the U.S. military was conducting a search and rescue operation, according to three people familiar who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation. Israel is helping the United States with the operation.<\/p>\n
According to an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. military said that it received notification of \u201can aircraft being shot down\u201d in the Middle East. The email did not provide more details.<\/p>\n
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a previous statement that President Donald Trump had been briefed but did not offer any additional information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It was the first time the U.S. has lost aircraft in Iranian territory and constitutes a dramatic escalation in the war since it began five weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Iran fired on targets across the Mideast on Friday, as Tehran kept the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors, despite U.S. and Israeli insistence that\u00a0Iran\u2019s military capabilities<\/a>\u00a0have been all but destroyed.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its\u00a0tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, have roiled stock markets, sent oil prices skyrocketing, and threatened to raise the cost of many basic goods, including food.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n