US President Donald Trump says the events will not affect any peace talks with Iran.
"No, not at all. No, it's war. We are at war," he said in a brief telephone interview with NBC News on Friday evening, local time in Sweden.
The first reports that a US fighter jet had been shot down over Iran came from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Friday morning. State media released images of wreckage with American insignia and an ejection seat with a deployed parachute.
A reward was announced on local television in western Iran.
"If you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police, you will receive a nice reward," an announcer said in the television broadcast, according to the AP news agency.
Rescued by helicopters
Later, sources confirmed to several American media outlets that a two-seater F-15E plane had indeed been shot down. A little later, confirmation came that one of the two on board had been found in an American rescue operation involving several aircraft and helicopters.
According to information provided to CBS News, the F-15 pilot was located and picked up by two helicopters; he was fired upon and hit by small-arms fire on his way out of the country.
The fate of the other person is unknown.
During the operation, a second plane, an A-10 Warthog attack aircraft, was also hit. In that incident, the lone pilot was able to eject over the Persian Gulf and be rescued, according to information provided to The New York Times and CBS News.
First confirmed
Iran's military says it is behind the shooting down of both planes, AFP reports.
"A US A-10 plane was hit by air defense systems and crashed in the Persian Gulf," a statement read, according to state television.
The downing of the F-15E is the first confirmed US aircraft shot down over Iran during the war. An F-35 has previously been damaged, according to US media, and three F-15Es were accidentally shot down over Kuwait at the start of the war.
