US fighter jet downed over Iran likely conducted strikes on ground targets — media

WASHINGTON, April 3. /TASS/. The US fighter jet shot down during a combat mission over Iranian territory was likely carrying out missions to strike ground targets, CBS News reported. Earlier, the news outlet reported, citing its own sources among US officials, that a two-seat F-15E fighter jet had been shot down in Iran. "There's not a lot of air-to-air combat to be had right now," CBS News national security analyst Aaron MacLean pointed out. "So this aircraft would have been prosecuting targets in Iran or participating broadly in some sort of mission to strike targets on the ground in Iran," he noted. According to the expert, the pilots of the downed fighter had sidearms. "But depending on what they encounter on the ground, that's not a lot," MacLean acknowledged. "You would have a pistol essentially to defend yourself in extremis. The much better play, and what they would be looking to do, is hide, make contact with their rescuers and get out without coming into contact, obviously, with any kind of enemy forces," he explained.