A United States fighter aircraft has been brought down over Iranian territory, marking the first confirmed loss of a US jet to Iranian air defences since

Iran's Qasem al-Anbyar Central Headquarters has claimed that a second F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter was shot down over central Iran. The statement says the aircraft was targeted by Iran's air defense systems and belonged to a squadron linked to RAF Lakenheath in the UK. According to the claim, the jet exploded on impact, making the survival of the pilots very unlikely. However, there has been no independent confirmation of this claim, and the US has not issued any statement so far. Iran had made similar claims in the past, but none have been independently verified. The report emphasises that while Iran maintains the explosion occurred and pilot survival chances are minimal, the claim remains unverified by independent sources.

Tehran: A second US fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet was struck and downed over central Iran by a modern air-defence system of the Islamic Republic's

US-Iran tensions: A US fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet was downed over central Iran by a modern air-defence system of the IRGC, Iranian state media reported on Friday. Earlier, on March 19, Iran claimed to have become the first nation in the world to strike a US F-35 Lightning 2.