The war between the United States, Israel and Iran entered its sixth week as U.S. forces continued searching for a missing crew member who bailed out of an F-15E fighter jet shot down by Iranian fire. U.S. officials also said a second U.S. combat plane was shot down near the Strait of Hormuz during a week of heavy strikes in the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran.
U.S. and Israeli aircraft struck multiple targets overnight and into Saturday, Iranian media and Iranian government agencies reported. Reported strikes included the Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone, a major oil-industry hub in southwestern Iran. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said an airstrike near the Bushehr nuclear facility killed a security guard and damaged a support building. Israel said it struck sites in Tehran linked to ballistic and anti-aircraft missile storage.
Debris from intercepted drones fell on buildings in Dubai, damaging facades including a multistory office used by U.S. tech firm Oracle; no injuries were reported. Iran also struck a water desalination plant and an oil refinery in Kuwait.
Maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — the strategic waterway for roughly 20% of the world’s oil — has been largely disrupted as Iran restricts passage in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli strikes. Dozens of countries, excluding the U.S. and Israel, have launched efforts to reopen the strait. President Trump said on Friday reopening would take “a little more time” but should be easy.
Casualties and damage
Pentagon figures at the close of the fifth week showed 365 U.S. service members wounded and 13 killed in combat. Iran’s Health Ministry reported at least 2,076 people killed in U.S.-Israeli attacks since Feb. 28.
Downed aircraft and search operations
U.S. officials said one crew member from the F-15E was rescued Friday; the other remains missing as search-and-rescue operations continue. Images circulated on Telegram from Iran’s Fars news agency showed wreckage resembling an F-15 vertical stabilizer and what was described as an empty ejection seat; the F-15E typically carries two crew members.
Videos also emerged showing aircraft and helicopters resembling U.S. search-and-rescue planes operating in southwestern Iran; at least one of those clips was geolocated to a bridge in Khuzestan province about 100 miles inland. Separately, a U.S. official told reporters that a second U.S. combat plane with a single crew member was shot down near the Strait of Hormuz; that crew member was rescued. The losses are rare and call into question earlier assertions of uncontested U.S. air dominance over the theater.
Lebanon: escalation and displacement
In Lebanon, Israeli strikes intensified against Hezbollah positions. Lebanese authorities reported at least 23 people killed in attacks on Friday. Israel’s defense minister said roughly 600,000 residents who fled southern Lebanon would not be allowed to return until Israel’s northern communities are “secure,” without providing a timetable; more than one million people across Lebanon have been displaced. Israeli officials have discussed plans to occupy a large area of southern Lebanon as a buffer or “security zone,” and ground operations and airstrikes have destroyed residential buildings and severed bridges, disrupting north-south routes.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut warned that Iranian actors might target U.S. universities in Lebanon; the American University of Beirut moved some classes online and the embassy advised U.S. citizens to consider leaving the country.
Attack in Dubai and regional threats
Debris from intercepted drones struck the Oracle office facade in Dubai; authorities said the attack occurred when offices were largely empty. Iranian officials framed the strike as retaliation for an attempted assassination this week of former Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi, who was severely wounded while his wife was killed. Reports indicate Kharazi had engaged Pakistani mediators about possible U.S.-Iran talks; it remains unclear who carried out the attack on him.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has named 18 U.S. tech and defense companies as potential targets for further attacks, listing firms such as Palantir, Meta, Google and Microsoft.
Operational and diplomatic implications
The cross-border strikes and drone debris incidents have damaged civilian infrastructure beyond Iran’s borders and complicated efforts to secure international shipping lanes. The downing of U.S. combat aircraft and the need for search-and-rescue missions underscore growing risks for air operations in the region and raise questions about claims of unchallenged U.S. air superiority.