Iran…Trump….3/3/2026….Two US Fighter jets Downed…One airman still missing…No Deal’s

During American rescue efforts, a U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was hit by ground fire but managed to escaped safely, U.S. and Israeli officials said.

Another U.S. warplane, an A-10 Warthog attack plane, crashed near the Strait of Hormuz about the same time as the F-15E, and the pilot was safely rescued, two U.S. officials said. They did not say what caused the plane to go down; the Iranian military said its air defense systems had hit an A-10. U.S. officials did not specify in which country the aircraft had crashed.

The loss of the jets and the rescue efforts created military and diplomatic challenges for the United States, which would be compounded if the missing American were taken prisoner. President Trump has threatened in recent days to bombard Iran “back to the Stone Ages,” and over the past 24 hours, the United States and Iran have been trading attacks on military and civilian infrastructure in the region.

Just days ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s air defenses were so degraded that the United States was sending B-52 bombers over the country, lumbering planes considered highly vulnerable to antiaircraft systems. The F-15E, with a crew of two, is much smaller, faster and more agile, making it a tougher target, though it is not one of the stealth fighters of more recent design.

Videos posted to social media and verified by The New York Times show helicopters and a C-130 airplane, American craft that were apparently part of the search and rescue effort, flying low over southwestern Iran.

In response to new rounds of Israeli and U.S. attacks, Iran continued to strike at Persian Gulf countries that are allies of the United States.

The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation on Friday said that drones had struck the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, without saying where the attack came from. In a separate episode, the Kuwaiti government said Iran had damaged a power and water desalination plant in the country. In Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital, the authorities said falling debris from an air defense interception had started a fire at a major gas field, halting operations there.

On Thursday, the United States struck a highway bridge near the Iranian capital, Tehran, and Iranian state media said the death toll had risen to 13 from eight.

Since the war started on Feb. 28, Iran has attacked refineries, oil tankers, storage sites and other energy infrastructure across the region, while Israel has hit some similar sites in Iran. Intentionally targeting energy infrastructure could constitute a war crime under international law. The strikes and Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for around a fifth of the world’s oil, have sent global oil prices soaring. (Markets in the United States were closed for Good Friday.)

Mr. Trump has threatened further strikes on energy infrastructure, warning that if Iran does not reopen the strait, the U.S. military would destroy the country’s power plants. “Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!” he wrote on social media late Thursday. “New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!”

Iranian leaders have been defiant in the face of the threats from Mr. Trump. The speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Mohammad Ghalibaf, mocked the U.S. war effort in a post on X, writing on Friday: “This brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”

Here’s what else we’re covering:

• Lebanon: Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut’s southern outskirts on Friday, the blasts echoing for miles across the Lebanese capital. The densely populated area — a maze of apartment blocks and storefronts — has long been a bastion of support for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. It is now largely empty, as hundreds of thousands have fled Israel’s bombing campaign.

• Iranian missiles: After its underground missile bunkers and silos are bombed, Iran digs them out and returns them to operation within hours, according to U.S. intelligence reports. That finding leaves it unclear how close the war effort is to destroying Iran’s missile capability, a key U.S. and Israeli goal in the war.

• Targeting Israel: The Israeli military said Iran and Hezbollah had launched more missiles toward Israel, where the national emergency service reported several impact sites and one injury.

• Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,607 civilians, including 244 children, had been killed in Iran as of Friday. Lebanon’s health ministry on Thursday said at least 1,345 Lebanese had been killed since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 people had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded…

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*Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament and a key government figure overseeing the war, took to social media to mock the Trump administration as U.S. forces searched for a missing American airman from a downed fighter plane. “This brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”he said in a post on X. “Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”

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The Guardian…

• Less than 48 hours after Donald Trump boasted in his primetime address to the nation that Iran has been “completely decimated”, a frantic effort remains under way to locate a missing crew member after a US fighter jet was shot down over southern Iran on Friday. It marks the first time an American crewed combat aircraft has been shot down over hostile territory since the US launched its invasion of Iraq in 2003. One US service member was rescued after the F-15E Strike Eagle fighter was downed, and a scramble is on to find the second crew member before the Iranians.

• The circumstances surrounding the downing of the jet remain unclear, and there has still been no official comment from the US government or military. Iranian state media has urged citizens to look for the missing US crew members and promised rewards for handing them over. Trump has repeatedly claimed the war is “already won” and “near completion”, and that Iran’s military capabilities have been decimated – contrary to US intelligence that roughly half of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers are still intact despite over a month of US-Israeli strikes against military targets in the country.

• Trump has been briefed on the incident, the White House confirmed.The US president hasn’t commented publicly, though he did tell NBC News that it wouldn’t affect negotiations with Iran, and declined to comment to The Independent on what the United States would do if the missing pilot is captured. Trump’s national security team has gathered in the West Wing and has been providing updates to the president about the downed US jet all day. He has been working in the Oval Office, or adjacent Oval dining room, since this morning, receiving frequent briefings on the ongoing search and rescue operation.

• A second US aircraft was struck by Iranian fire after the F-15 fighter jet was downed, according to reports. A single-pilot aircraft – an A-10 Thunderbolt, known as a Warthog – that was mobilised to support the search and rescue mission was then also struck by Iranian fire. The aircraft reportedly crashed after making it to Kuwaiti airspace, where the pilot ejected and was safely rescued.

• Iran also reportedly hit two UH 60 Blackhawk helicopters involved in the search and rescue. A US official told NBC News there were minor injuries to service members from that strike but all of them are safe.

• Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf appeared to mock the United States after reports emerged of the downed fighter jet.He wrote on X: “After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’.” He added: “Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”

• Meanwhile, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Tehran had rejected a US proposal for a 48-hour ceasefire, citing an unnamed source. The source said the proposal was made on Wednesday through another country, which was not named. There was no immediate comment or confirmation from the US. Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran had officially told mediators it is unwilling to meet with US officials in Islamabad in the coming days. As we reported earlier this week, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said that Tehran will only accept a permanent and comprehensive end to the war – not a ceasefire…

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ISW…Iran Update Special Report, April 3, 2026

1. Iran’s ballistic missile program is a military organization that consists of both combat and support elements. and it is impossible to evaluate the overall degradation of Iran’s ballistic missile program based on one element of the system. The ballistic missile program consists of combat elements such as Iran’s missile stockpile and launchers, but it also includes support elements, such as research facilities, development institutions, and industrial facilities.
2. The majority of Iranian ballistic missiles are combat ineffective, even if they remain “intact.” A missile launcher that is buried is combat ineffective for the period it is buried. It is also combat ineffective if it cannot move from its underground storage facility.
3. The combined force has rendered many of Iran’s missile launchers combat ineffective, but it is entirely unclear whether these “launchers” refer to launchers for medium-range or short-range systems or whether any of the launchers are interchangeable between medium-range and short-range systems.
4. The US-Israeli campaign has solidified the operational success generated by rendering launchers combat ineffective and destroying missile stockpiles by targeting Iran’s defense industrial base extensively. Strikes on these sites will make it more challenging for Iran to reconstitute its missile and drone program over the long-term.
5. Unspecified US and Israeli officials confirmed that Iran shot down a US Air Force F-15E over Iran on April 3. This incident is the first known US combat aircraft lost over Iranian territory since the beginning of the war.
6. The IDF announced that it has prepared a plan to establish a “security zone” along the Israel-Lebanon border, which includes the destruction of Lebanese villages within the defined zone. Hezbollah would likely use the expanded Israeli presence in southern Lebanon and the displacement of southern Lebanese Shia to justify its position as the “defender” of Lebanon.