Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed on Sunday local time to have shot down a United States aircraft participating in a rescue operation for a missing F-15 crew member.

This assertion follows reports from Iran's Fars news agency, which shared a photograph depicting smoke rising from a field, as cited by Al Jazeera.

The Iranian claim emerges amid confirmation from United States President Donald Trump that the military successfully rescued the second F-15 crew member, who had gone missing after Iran downed the jet during the ongoing West Asia conflict.

In a post on the social media platform Truth Social, Trump described the operation as the "most daring" search and rescue mission in US military history, emphasising that the government would "not leave a warfighter behind."

Trump revealed that the rescued crew member, identified as a highly respected Colonel, had sustained injuries but would recover fully.

He detailed the perilous circumstances, noting the officer had been "behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour."

Trump stressed that the individual was never truly alone, with constant monitoring from the Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow warfighters around the clock.

At Trump's direction, the US military deployed dozens of aircraft equipped with "the most lethal weapons in the World" to execute the retrieval.

This second rescue followed an earlier successful operation for another brave pilot the previous day, which was not publicly confirmed to avoid jeopardising the subsequent mission.

Trump highlighted the historic nature of the rescues, marking the first time in military memory that two US pilots had been extracted separately from deep within enemy territory.

Remarkably, both operations concluded without a single American killed or even wounded, underscoring what Trump called "overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies."

He portrayed this as a unifying moment for all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, and praised the US military as "the best, most professional, and lethal Military in the History of the World."

Trump concluded his post with blessings for America, its troops, and a reference to Happy Easter for all.

Both the United States and Iran were conducting parallel search operations for the missing crew member at the time.

During these efforts, Iranian tribesmen reportedly opened fire on American helicopters, according to CNN.

ANI