US fighter jet appears to have been shot down by Iran, search and rescue underway, US officials say

(NEW YORK) — More than 1,100 Afghan refugees and family members of active duty U.S. military personnel are stranded on an unused Doha military base that has become a target since the start of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, according to U.S. non-profit organization Afghan Evac.

Qatar Armed Forces have been intercepting incoming attacks from Iran, but residents at the facility, known as Camp As Sayliyah, told ABC News they have been hiding in buildings during the attacks and were not initially given bunkers or proper protections to take cover.

During those weeks, they said shrapnel would fall into their bedrooms, even locations where young children were. Since the war broke out, refugees sent ABC News recordings in secret, outlining what they say are the dire conditions at the camp. They asked for their faces to be hidden and their voices altered, due to their fear of being deported or reprimanded.

Three weeks later, ABC News received videos where residents show how the camp installed new concrete walling near the entrances and exits of buildings. They say workers urge residents to enter the bunkers in the “event of a duck and cover alert.”

In response to the residents’ claims of terrible conditions, a spokesperson for the a U.S. State Department, which administers the base, also told ABC News they are “addressing all related operational concerns” including “the safety and security of American citizens as well as the safety of residents at Camp As Sayliyah.”

Mahidewran, a young Afghan mother, told us that her child’s first steps were taken in the camp, where the family has been for more than a year, and that raising her child there has been difficult.

“I’m not always able to provide her with the foods she needs or the toys she loves,” she said.

Her daughter was about to turn 1 when they were initially brought to Camp As Sayliyah, and now she is turning 2.

Apart from raising a child on a former military base, she faces another unlikely challenge: war.

Mahidewran told ABC News sirens go off every few hours in the camp, warning residents to take cover in their buildings.

“I left [Afghanistan] through a legal process by the United States, and when they transferred me to Qatar, we were given safety, an opportunity to rebuild our lives,” she told ABC News.

Ahmad, who said he fought against terrorism alongside the U.S. as a member of the Afghan Command forces, told ABC News his son sleeps under the bed, fearing for his life as missiles continue to fire at the camp.

He said he’s been living at Camp As Sayliyah with his children for more than 18 months, and despite being brought to Doha by the U.S. government, his entire family remains in limbo, not knowing where they will go next. ABC News spoke to refugees who shared similar stories to Ahmad’s — saying they were promised a better life in return for risking theirs when working for the U.S. government.

From July to August 2021, the U.S. evacuated more than 100,000 people out of Afghanistan during Operation Allies Refuge, following the withdrawal of U.S. troops during the Biden-Harris administration.

Nearly five years later, the Trump administration has halted relocation and refugee resettlement efforts, impacting many of those who had already been vetted and cleared to travel to the U.S., according to AfghanEvac. The reports detailing the operation have since been deleted from the State Department website.

Refugees at Camp As Sayliyah said that the U.S. government’s promise of a better life on American soil was broken and that being caught in another war brings them back to the terrifying moments they experienced in Afghanistan.

“We came from a country that was under war for 48 years, before living here we were living in constant fear and anxiety,” Farishta, a teenager living on the base with her parents, told ABC News.

When ABC News spoke with Farishta, she said she was still living in a state of fear and that a worker at the camp threatened her with deportation to Afghanistan if she spoke to a journalist again.

Farishta said she has lived at Camp As Sayliyah for 15 months and often dreams of her future, hoping to further her education.

“I feel hopeless because I am a girl who has been deprived of education and whose future is uncertain,” she said.

“Afghan Nationals at the camp do not currently have a viable pathway to the United States,” the department said.

The plan is to relocate the population to a third country by March 31, according to the department. It said this “is a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan.”

The State Dept said the “Trump administration has no plans to send these” Afghan refugees back to their home country.

However, those people ABC News spoke to said they have not been told what country they would be going to or when.

Afghan Evac said it has been advocating for refugees at the camp, writing several letters to the State Department, urging the government not to leave the residents at Camp As Sayliyah behind.

According to Afghan Evac, 800 of the people at the camp are fully vetted and approved refugees who were cleared to travel to the U.S. The camp’s residents are mainly women and children, it said.

Shawn VanDiver, the president of Afghan Evac, claimed that there was a pathway and that the State Department closed it off.

“There is no structural or legal barrier preventing these individuals from coming from the United States. The absence of a ‘viable pathway’ is a policy choice, not an inevitability,” he told ABC News.

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(NEW YORK) — A second American aircraft carrier — the USS Gerald R. Ford — is heading toward the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran, accompanied by destroyers and aircraft being redeployed from missions in the Caribbean region, a U.S. official told ABC News.

As negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program continue, American aircraft carriers are at the forefront of a major U.S. military buildup in the Middle East. The Ford is expected to join the USS Abraham Lincoln in the region, the latter having arrived there late last month.

The Ford briefly transmitted its location off the coast of Morocco on Wednesday as it approached the Mediterranean Sea, according to data from the MarineTraffic website. The carrier’s location was visible for around two hours. 

Also visible on the FlightRadar24 website on Wednesday were two C-2A Greyhound aircraft, which in recent months have been operating off the carrier. The aircraft transmitted their locations off the coast of Portugal, around 230 miles from the Ford’s position.

The Ford is being accompanied by four destroyers as it sails east toward the Middle East.

Three of the destroyers are part of the Ford’s carrier strike group that have accompanied the carrier since it first deployed in June, the fourth destroyer had previously been a part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s surge of military forces in the Caribbean, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.

Each of the destroyers is armed with air defense systems that can shoot down incoming missiles and drones, plus Tomahawk cruise missiles that can be used to strike targets up to 1,000 miles away.

F-35 stealth fighter jets are among the U.S. assets heading toward the Middle East, including some that had been deployed to Puerto Rico ahead of the U.S. operation to depose Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

A spokesman for the Vermont National Guard confirmed to ABC News that the 158th Fighter Wing received a change in mission from U.S. Southern Command — which oversees operations in the Caribbean, Central and South America — but did not disclose their new deployment area.

In late January, online flight trackers noted a dozen F-35 fighters taking off from Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico and landing on the Azores islands in the mid-Atlantic, on their way to the Middle East.

Key Iranian nuclear personnel and facilities were targeted by Israeli and American forces during an intense 12-day conflict in June. But the strikes failed to resolve long-standing U.S. and Israeli grievances related to Tehran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile arsenal and its support for regional proxy groups.

U.S. and Iranian representatives met in Geneva, Switzerland, this week for talks regarding a possible deal related to Tehran’s nuclear program and its enrichment of uranium. Trump has demanded that Iran commit to “zero enrichment,” a proposal rejected by Iranian officials.

U.S. officials briefed on the negotiations said Iran indicated a willingness to suspend its nuclear enrichment for a certain amount of time, anywhere from one to five years. 

The U.S. is also weighing lifting financial and banking sanctions and the embargo on its oil sales, according to a U.S. official. 

Following the talks in Geneva, Iran is expected to submit a written proposal aimed at resolving the tensions, a senior U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday. It is unclear when the written proposal will be submitted to the U.S. 

On Tuesday, a White House official said Iran would provide detailed proposals to address “some of the open gaps in our positions” in the next two weeks.

ABC News’ Shannon Kingston and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.

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(COLOMBIA) — An American Airlines flight attendant has been reported missing in Colombia, according to officials.

Eric Fernando Gutiérrez Molina landed on March 21 on a flight from Miami to Medellin, Colombia, according to the Medellin security secretary.

Authorities believe he may have been drugged and are investigating that claim.

He was last seen early Sunday morning after a party at a club in the Medellín neighborhood of El Poblado, with a man and a woman, according to the security secretary.

“We are actively engaged with local law enforcement officials in their investigation and doing all we can to support our team member’s family during this time,” American Airlines said in a statement.

A State Department spokesperson said, “We are aware of these reports and are closely tracking the situation.”

“The Trump Administration has no greater priority than the safety and security of Americans, and the State Department stands ready to provide all consular assistance to Americans in need abroad,” the spokesperson said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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