US fighter jet down in Iran: 1 crew member rescued as search continues, officials say
(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. fighter jet appears to have been shot down by Iran over Iranian territory, American officials confirmed to ABC News, marking a new and potentially dangerous point in the conflict.
One crew member aboard the downed two-seater F-15E has been rescued, according to a U.S. official. The status of the other crew member is unknown, according to the official.
Combat search and rescue missions have become relatively rare for U.S. forces after more than a generation of near-total air dominance, with American aircraft typically operating with limited threats to aircraft in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The early indications that the U.S. fighter was brought down by enemy fire would mark the first time Iran has successfully downed a manned American aircraft in the war, which started in February.
There are photos of the fighter that were released by Iranian state media and could not be independently verified by ABC News.
President Donald Trump has been briefed on the matter, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
In late March, an American F-18 fighter jet narrowly dodged an Iranian surface-to-air missile, according to a U.S. official. Earlier that month, an American F-35, the Pentagon’s most advanced stealth fighter jet, had to make an emergency landing after being struck by Iranian fire. Three F-15s were also brought down over Kuwait in a friendly fire episode earlier in the war, though all six pilots ejected safely, according to U.S. officials.
The incident comes after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other U.S. officials have said that Iran’s military capabilities have been severely crippled and that the U.S. has “total air dominance” over Iran.
Trump, in a primetime address to the nation earlier this week, said the U.S. was “nearing completion” of its military objectives and that Tehran’s anti-aircraft abilities had been decimated.
“We’ve done all of it. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten,” Trump said in his speech on Wednesday night.
“They have no anti-aircraft equipment,” Trump added in his remarks. “Their radar is 100% annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has made a number of false claims about US aircraft being downed but the US has pushed back on those.
Iran has maintained at least some ability to continue with attacks targeting U.S. facilities in the Middle East and other countries in the region, wounding more than 300 U.S. service members, according to U.S. officials. The number of wounded has increased at a relatively steady rate each week, data reviewed by ABC News shows. Thirteen service members have been killed in action since the war began five weeks ago, according to U.S. Central Command.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(PARIS) — A “criminal explosion” struck a synagogue in the Belgian city of Liège at around 4 a.m. local time on Monday in a “violent act of antisemitism,” a local government spokeswoman confirmed to ABC News.
The explosion caused “material damage” but there were no casualties and the site, the official said, “has been secured.”
An investigation by Belgium’s Federal Police force is “ongoing.”
Liège’s mayor, Willy Demeyer, strongly condemned the antisemitic attack and said “external conflicts” cannot be imported into the city.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A soldier of the Unmanned Systems Forces prepares a ‘Salut’ drone on March 31, 2026 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (Nikoletta Stoyanova/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukraine launched more cross-border attack drones than Russia in a one-month period for the first time since the start of the ongoing war in 2022, according to daily data published by the Ukrainian Air Force and Russian Ministry of Defense, which was analyzed by ABC News.
Russia’s defense ministry reported downing 7,347 Ukrainian drones during March, the highest monthly total ever reported by Moscow and an average of 237 craft each day. The defense ministry only publishes figures of Ukrainian drones it claims were shot down.
Ukraine’s air force, meanwhile, said its forces faced 6,462 Russian drones and 138 missiles of various types across the course of the month, of which 5,833 drones and 102 missiles — around 90% of drones and just under 74% of missiles — were intercepted or suppressed.
Ukraine, therefore, faced a daily average of just over 208 drones and four missiles during March, according to the data published by Kyiv.
ABC News cannot independently verify the data released by either Russia or Ukraine. It is possible that both sides may seek to exaggerate the effectiveness of their air defenses, or to amplify the attacks against them as proof that their enemies are not interested in pursuing a peace deal, experts have suggested.
The combined tally of 6,600 Russian drones and missiles reported by Ukraine’s air force across the month marks a new record high for a single month of Russian long-range attacks.
Ukraine’s air force publishes what it says is a daily tally of Russian drone and missile strikes, including information as to how many munitions were intercepted and how many hit targets.
Russia launched the month’s largest overall attack in a 24-hour period by either side. Ukraine’s air force said Moscow launched 948 drones and 34 missiles into the country on March 24.
Long-range drone and missile strikes have been a key element of the conflict as both Kyiv and Moscow seek to degrade the other’s economy and undermine their ability to prosecute and fund the ongoing war. The strikes have continued despite the resumptions of U.S.-brokered peace talks.
Russia has thus far been able to launch more drones and missiles into Ukraine, with Ukrainian leaders citing Moscow’s nightly barrages as a severe threat to the country’s strategic position. But March’s data suggests the balance may be shifting more in Ukraine’s favor, as Kyiv’s long-term efforts to expand its drone and missile capabilities bear fruit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been clear on Kyiv’s plans to expand Ukraine’s long-range strike capabilities.
“Our production potential for drones and missiles alone will reach $35 billion next year,” Zelenskyy said in October. “Despite all the difficulties, Ukrainians are creating their national defense product that, in certain parameters, already surpasses many others in the world.”
“Never before in history has Ukrainian defense been so long-range and so felt by Russia,” Zelenskyy added. “We must make the cost of war absolutely unacceptable for the aggressor — and we will.”
To date, the majority of Ukrainian strikes are believed to have been conducted using relatively cheap, Ukrainian-made drones. Increasingly, Ukraine is also using interceptor drones designed and built by Ukrainian companies to intercept incoming Russian strike drones.
Ukraine is now producing its own cruise missiles — most notably the Flamingo, which Kyiv says has a range of more than 1,800 miles — but its drone arsenal still accounts for the vast majority of projectiles reported shot down by the Russian defense ministry, according to daily data published by Moscow.
Over the past year, Ukraine has put a special focus on attacking Russian oil refining and transport facilities, hoping — according to Ukrainian leaders — to cut into a key funding stream for Moscow and its military.
Ukraine’s most high-profile attacks of March came at Russia’s Baltic Sea ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk — key oil export hubs. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the strikes as “terrorist attacks.”
Zelenskyy in February said Russia’s energy sector is “a legitimate target” for attacks by Ukraine, because Russia uses revenue from sales of oil to procure weapons used to attack Ukraine.
“We do not have to choose whether we strike a military target or energy,” Zelenskyy said while addressing students at the National Aviation University in Kyiv. “He sells oil, takes the money, invests it in weapons. And with those weapons, he kills Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian officials have broadly sought to downplay the Ukrainian attacks, with most reports of damage or casualties attributed to falling debris from intercepted drones, rather than craft that found their mark. When Russian officials do acknowledge damage, they often describe the strikes as “terrorist attacks.”
But plenty of publicly available information — including video footage and photographs of the attacks — indicate that a significant number of Ukrainian drones do penetrate Russian air defenses and impact at sensitive military and industrial sites.
Meanwhile, drone incursions into neighboring countries — among them NATO allies — have raised concerns of the war spilling over into non-combatant nations.
NATO aircraft are regularly scrambled in NATO nations like Poland and Romania in response to Russian drone attacks along Ukraine’s western borders.
Allied officials have reported Russian drone violations in Romania, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Russian drones have also overflown Moldova, which is not a NATO member. Russian officials have denied responsibility for such incursions.
Stray Ukrainian drones have been reported falling in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Delegations from Russia, Ukraine and the United States are set to hold trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates on Friday in what officials say will be the first trilateral meeting since Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine almost four years ago in February 2022.
The talks — planned for Friday and Saturday in Abu Dhabi — will be at a technical level and not include heads of state but is still a notable diplomatic engagement amid the ongoing fighting.
Administration officials for U.S. President Donald Trump have projected confidence over reaching a deal in recent days, saying territorial control of eastern Ukraine is the last remaining sticking point. But that issue is arguably the most difficult and many experts remain skeptical an agreement is possible yet.
President Trump’s lead negotiators special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner met for four hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin into the early hours of Friday. But the Kremlin afterwards indicated there was no breakthrough and vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes all of its Donbas region and agrees to a number of other heavy Russian demands.
Ahead of the meeting with Putin Witkoff on Thursday said that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are now down to “one issue.”
“And we have discussed iterations of that issue, and that means it’s solvable,” Witkoff said in Davos Thursday.
When Trump was asked what concessions Putin needs to make during the upcoming talks, Trump didn’t mention any specifics but did indicate that concessions from Putin are on the table.
“He’ll make concessions,” Trump said. “Everybody’s making concessions to get it done.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Davos at the World Economic Forum on Thursday. The talks between the two lasted for about an hour.
“This is the last mile, which is the most difficult,” Zelenskyy said following the meeting. “The dialogue is not easy, but it was positive,”
After the meeting, however, Zelenskyy issued a sharp rebuke to Europe for not doing enough to stop Russia.
“Too often, Europeans turn against each other — leaders, parties, movements, and communities — instead of standing together to stop Russia, which brings the same destruction to everyone. Instead of becoming a truly global power, Europe remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers,” Zelenskyy said.
“Instead of taking the lead in defending freedom worldwide — especially when America’s focus shifts elsewhere — Europe looks lost, trying to convince the U.S. president to change,” he continued.
Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin along with Josh Gruenbaum, who has been newly appointed by Trump as a senior adviser to his Board of Peace.
On the Russian side, the meeting was attended by presidential aide Yuri Ushakov and investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev, according to the Kremlin.
Speaking to journalists afterwards, Ushakov indicated Putin will still only accept an agreement that hands control of Donbas to Russia, as Moscow alleges was outlined during the summit between Putin and Trump in Alaska last summer.
“The main thing is that during these negotiations between our president and the Americans, it was once again stated that without resolving the territorial issue according to the formula agreed in Anchorage, one should not expect to achieve a long-term settlement,” Ushakov continued.
Ushakov maintained that the Russian Federation is sincerely interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis through political and diplomatic methods, but wouldn’t retreat on the battlefield during negotiations.
“While this is not the case, Russia will continue to consistently achieve the goals set for the special military operation on the battlefield, where the Russian armed forces have a strategic initiative,” Ushakov said.
Russia’s invasion has killed hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, razed whole Ukrainian cities and forced over 5 million to flee the country, according to the United Nations.
The American delegation shared with Putin “first-hand” their assessments of the meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy in Davos, according to the Russian delegation.
“Our security negotiating group has already been formed and will fly to the Emirates in the coming hours. It includes representatives of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, headed by Admiral Kostyukov, Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff, ” Ushakov said.
In Davos, Zelenskyy suggested he doubted Russia is ready to reach a peace deal, saying “I am not sure Putin wants to end this war in the situation where he is.”
“Maybe they want to find compromises. We are open to different steps, and I said that there are two sides that compromise,” said Zelenskyy. “Russians will not win this war. They did not win and will not.”
ABC News’ Mariam Khan, Patrick Reevell and Will Gretzky contributed to this report.
