Some enemy aircraft destroyed: Iran

Trump says Iran military leaders killed in Tehran strike

April 06, 2026 00:00:00

This handout photo provided by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official website Sepah News Sunday reportedly shows the wreckage and remains of targeted and crashed aircraft in central Iran. IRGC said a US aircraft that had been searching for the crew member of a missing US fighter jet had been destroyed, Iranian media reported on the day . — AFP

Several aircraft were destroyed during the US mission to find a stranded airman in Iran, the Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday according to Tasnim News Agency, reports Reuters.

"During a joint operation (Aerospace, Ground Force, Popular Units, Basij and Police command), enemy aircraft were destroyed," the group said after Iran's police command announced an American C-130 plane had been downed in the south of Isfahan.

Earlier on Sunday, Iran's army also said they had downed an Israeli drone in the same province.

AFP adds: Iran's military said on Sunday that the US operation to rescue an airman from a downed American fighter jet had been "completely foiled", without suggesting he had been captured.

The statement came after US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the officer had been rescued in a search and rescue operation and was "SAFE and SOUND".

"The so-called US military rescue operation, planned as a deception and escape mission at an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan under the pretext of recovering the pilot of a downed aircraft, was completely foiled," said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the military's central command, Khatam Al-Anbiya.

In a video statement carried by state television, he said that "two C-130 military transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters were destroyed" during the operation.

He added that Trump went ahead with "empty rhetoric and diversion although the reality on the ground demonstrates the superior position of Iran's powerful armed forces."

Two Kuwaiti power and water desalination plants were damaged by a drone attack from Iran, the electricity and water ministry said Sunday.

US President Donald Trump said earlier on Saturday that "many" of Iran's military leaders were killed in a huge strike on the Islamic republic's capital.

"Many of Iran's Military Leaders, who have led them poorly and unwisely, are terminated, along with much else, with this massive strike in Tehran!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.