Iranian state media on Friday released photos of what it claimed is the wreckage of a US Air Force fighter jet downed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The series of photos shows only small pieces of an aircraft, the largest about as tall as a person, that the Iranian report claims is an F-35 stealth fighter.
But the wreckage photos appear to be from a US Air Force F-15 jet.
The photos show a partial logo for “US Air Forces in Europe” that appears on a F-15 tail fin and red-and-white striping from the top of the tail fin.
Another piece of wreckage – with the words “CAUTION USE ONLY NON-MAGNETIC FASTENERS” – appears to match a rear portion of an F-15 that extends between one of its two engines and its horizontal stabilizer.
“From the structure it certainly looks like an F-15, and from the tail flash stripe markings, from the 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom,” Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and former Royal Australian Air Force officer, told CNN.
Multiple Iranian state media outlets, including Press TV, published the images along with a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying that Iranian forces had shot down an F-35 stealth fighter in central Iran.
CNN has asked US Central Command (CENTCOM) for comment on the Iranian claim.
Earlier, the IRGC claimed that a different “advanced enemy fighter jet” was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz, between Qeshm and Hengam islands. In that instance, no images were released of wreckage to support that claim.
In a “Fact Check” post on X published after that first claim, CENTCOM denied any US fighter jets were lost over Qeshm island and said Iran’s forces routinely make false claims.
“All US fighter aircraft are accounted for. Iran’s IRGC has made the same false claim at least half a dozen times,” CENTCOM said.
CENTCOM has yet to issue a “Fact Check” post on X on the latest shootdown claim by the Revolutionary Guards over central Iran.
