A US fighter jet has been shot down over Iran and a search and rescue operation is underway for any survivors, two US officials say.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was combing an area near where the plane came down in southwestern Iran.
Iranian officials called on civilians to be on the lookout for survivors and have flooded social media with images that purport to show wreckage from the aircraft.
A US military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the jet was shot down but did not offer further details.
Iranian news agencies said US helicopters were flying low on apparent search missions and carried videos of residents shooting at them.
An Iranian TV channel in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province showed metal debris in the back of a pick-up truck.
The province is mainly home to Iran's Lur people, many of whom are farmers.
The extreme south of the province is the start of Iran's oil fields in the area.
There were no confirmed details of the searches or the type of aircraft shot down, which the Iranian military said was an F-35, a single-seater.
The Pentagon and US Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A major explosion from an air strike struck Iran's capital Tehran at about the same time on Friday afternoon.
It was not clear what had been hit.
The loss underlined the risk still faced by US and Israeli aircraft over Iran, despite assertions by US President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that their forces had total control of the skies.
Nearly five weeks after the United States and Israel opened the campaign with a wave of strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there is no sign of an end to the war, which has already killed thousands and threatened lasting damage to the global economy.
On Thursday, Trump posted footage on social media showing dust and smoke billowing up as US strikes hit the newly constructed B1 bridge between Tehran and nearby Karaj, which was due to open this year, and said more attacks would follow.
"Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!," he wrote in a subsequent post.
Despite the pressure, Iran has been able to hit back at Israel and strike Gulf countries allied to the US, which have so far held back from joining the war directly for fear of further escalation.
As of last week, the United States could only determine with certainty that it has destroyed about a third of Iran's missile arsenal.
On Friday, as Trump threatened to hit its bridges and power plants, Iran struck a power and water plant in Kuwait, underlining the vulnerability of Gulf States that rely heavily on desalination plants for drinking water.
The state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp said firefighters were working to control several blazes at the Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery.
So far, 13 US military service members have been killed in the conflict and more than 300 have been wounded, according to the US Central Command.
No US troops have been taken prisoner by Iran.
with AP