Iran has claimed that it intercepted and targeted a US F-15 fighter jet near Hormuz Island after it allegedly violated Iranian airspace amid the US-Iran-Israel war.
According to a post on X by the Consulate General of Iran in Mumbai, the incident occurred hours earlier over Iran’s southern coastal region near the strategic Hormuz Island. The post said that an “enemy F-15 fighter jet” entered Iranian airspace, prompting a response from the country’s air defence systems.
Earlier, a US F-35 fighter jet was attacked during an Iranian strike and forced to make an emergency landing at a military base in the Middle East. This was the first known instance of Iran hitting one of the US military’s most advanced and expensive aircraft in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The US F-35 was flying over central Iran when it was struck indicates a degree of confidence within America’s security circles that Iranian air defences have been sufficiently weakened. “We’re flying wherever we want. Nobody is even shooting at us,” Trump boasted on Thursday. Hours later, the F-35 jet, which has been designed to evade radar, was hit.
The West Asia conflict has entered its fourth week, disrupting trade routes through the Strait of Hormuz. Tensions escalated after the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, in joint military strikes by the United States and Israel on February 28.
On Saturday, Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles aimed at the US-UK military base Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. Although neither missile struck the base, the attack signals a dramatic escalation in Tehran’s operational reach.
The strike drew attention because Diego Garcia lies roughly 4,000 kilometres from Iran. Which is double the publicly acknowledged range of Tehran’s ballistic missiles
