TEHRAN: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Saturday that it had targeted an F‑16 fighter jet belonging to Israel over the central part of the country, in a significant escalation amid the ongoing Middle East conflict.
“An F-16 hostile enemy fighter jet belonging to the Zionist regime was struck at 3:45 am in central Iran,” the Guards said on their Sepah News website.
The Revolutionary Guards’ statement did not provide detailed information on the outcome of the engagement, but described the strike as part of Iran’s response to continuing strikes by Israel and the United States that began on February 28.
Those initial strikes have since triggered a broader confrontation across the region, with Tehran launching retaliatory drone and missile attacks against multiple targets in the Gulf and beyond.
The Israeli military reported that a surface-to-air missile was fired at one of its aircraft during “an operational activity” over Iran, though it did not specify the type of jet involved. The military added that “no damage was caused to the aircraft.”
It remains unclear whether this incident corresponds to the attack claimed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Iranian media released images showing smoke rising in the sky, reporting that another aircraft had been targeted, but they did not identify whether it belonged to Israel or the United States.
These developments follow earlier statements from the Revolutionary Guards, which claimed that a US F-35 fighter jet was “hit and seriously damaged in the skies of central Iran,” highlighting the escalating aerial confrontations in the region.
