Iran Says It Shot Down a US F-15 Near Hormuz Island As Air War With America Escalates

Iran claimed it intercepted and struck an American F-15 fighter jet near Hormuz Island after the aircraft allegedly entered Iranian airspace, the latest escalation in the ongoing US-Iran-Israel conflict.

The Consulate General of Iran in Mumbai posted on X that the incident took place hours earlier over Iran’s southern coastal region, near the strategically located Hormuz Island. The post described the aircraft as an “enemy F-15 fighter jet” that crossed into Iranian airspace, triggering a response from Iran’s air defence systems. Iran said its Army’s air defence units deployed a surface-to-air missile and struck the aircraft.

The incident follows a separate, already-notable episode in which a US F-35 was hit during an Iranian strike and forced to make an emergency landing at a military base somewhere in the Middle East. That was the first confirmed instance of Iran hitting an F-35 one of America’s most advanced and costliest aircraft in the current conflict.

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The F-35 was flying over central Iran at the time it was struck, a detail that pointed to a level of confidence inside American security circles that Iranian air defences had been significantly degraded. President Trump had said as much on Thursday. “We’re flying wherever we want. Nobody is even shooting at us,” he said. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth went further, saying Iran’s air defences have been “flattened.” Hours after those remarks, the F-35 was hit.