Donald Trump, mocked by a top Iranian official after the F-15 case: “From 'regime change' to 'can someone find our pilots?'”
Mohammed Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament and a key official overseeing the war, mocked the Trump administration on social media on Friday after Tehran's forces shot down a US F-15E fighter jet.
“This brilliant, strategyless war they started has been downgraded from 'regime change' to 'Hey! Can someone find our pilots? Please?'” Ghalibaf said in a post on Platform X. “Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute genius,” the Iranian official continued.
Mohammed Ghalibaf's reaction comes as Tehran's forces shot down a US F-15E fighter jet in Iran on Friday, a first since the start of the war. So far only one of the two soldiers on board has been found by US forces.
Two US officials later told The New York Times that around the same time, a US A-10 Warthog attack plane crashed near the Strait of Hormuz. The two, who spoke on condition of anonymity, offered few details regarding how and where the event occurred.
Iranian state media later reported that the Islamic Republic's defense systems attacked an “enemy” A-10 aircraft in southern waters near the Strait of Hormuz.
Just a few days ago, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth claimed that Iran's defenses were so damaged by US and Israeli strikes that Washington was sending B-52 bombers to Iran, heavy aircraft considered vulnerable to anti-aircraft systems. The F-15E is more agile than bombers, which in theory makes it a more inaccessible target for Iranian attacks.
