US fighter jet makes emergency landing after being struck by Iran in first hit since war began

WASHINGTON, DC: Since the beginning of the US-Iran war, none of the American jets were struck by the Iranian fire. But just before midnight Wednesday, March 18, a US fighter jet conducted an emergency landing, believed to have been hit by Tehran.

Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for US Central Command, told The Independent, "We are aware of reports that a US F-35 aircraft conducted an emergency landing at a regional US airbase after flying a combat mission over Iran.”

US fighter jet emergency landing under probe

“The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot is in stable condition. This incident is under investigation,” he added.

This came after the Trump administration had repeatedly asserted that the US is winning the war, which was launched with Israel on February 28, killing the former Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei.

Pete Hegseth claims Iran left with no navy, no air force

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently claimed that “Iran has no air defense. Iran has no air force. Iran has no Navy. Their missiles, their missile launchers and drones being destroyed or shot out of the sky.”

Also, President Donald Trump had proudly announced that the US is “doing very well in Iran, you see the result. It's been amazing, we’ve knocked out 42 navy ships, some of them very large, in three days. That was the end of the navy.”

“We knocked out their air force, we knocked out their communications,” he claimed, before calling Iranian leaders “bad people”.

Trump says waging war against Iran is in favour of the world

The POTUS added, “When you look at October 7 and beyond October 7, when you look at all the killing they’ve done for 47 years, this had to be done. They were very close to a nuclear weapon. They are crazy, and they would have used it, as he declared, “So we did the world a favor.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he did not ask the US to engage in war with Iran.

Benjamin Netanyahu claims he did not 'convince President Trump' of war

“I misled no one. I didn't have to convince President Trump to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program, putting it underground and being able to launch nuclear tipped missiles at the United States,” Netanyahu asserted.

He also further noted that Trump himself understood why it was important to stop Iran from developing its nuclear program. Netanyahu added, “I didn't explain it to him, and I think that our partnership is the only way to avoid this catastrophic development.”