A senior Iranian military commander said that the country's forces are “hunting” US planes using new methods and equipment. His comments came after two US military aircraft were shot down on the same day.
Yesterday, a US Air Force F-15 was shot down over Iran, with one crew member still missing, while an A-10 Thunderbolt II was hit and crashed shortly after leaving Iranian territory.
Brigadier General Alireza Elhami, commander of Iran's Joint Air Defense Base, said that the loss of the US aircraft was “the result of tactics, the use of modern equipment and innovations in (Iranian) air defense systems,” the state news agency IRNA reported. Elhami did not specify what these innovations were.
“This caused confusion and bewilderment among the enemy,“ he said.
The F-15 is the first manned American aircraft known to have been shot down over Iran during the conflict.