The U.S. military is denying an Iranian claim that it downed a U.S. aircraft near Bushehr, a coastal city in southwestern Iran.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) posted Thursday on X that it was a false claim and that all U.S. air assets were accounted for.
“No U.S. aircraft were shot down,” CENTCOM stated.
Iranian state TV said a U.S. aircraft had been destroyed and attributed it to Bushehr’s Gov. Masoud Tangestani.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed May 26 that it shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Persian Gulf during heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran. Iranian state media also reported that Iranian forces fired at an RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone and an F-35 fighter jet.
The U.S. military did not confirm the claims. However, CENTCOM confirmed carrying out what it described as defensive strikes in southern Iran targeting missile launch sites.
Iran condemned the strikes as a violation of a ceasefire and accused the United States of escalating tensions in the region through military intervention.
A tentative 60-day ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran is awaiting final approval from U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a U.S. government source. The proposed memorandum of understanding would extend the current ceasefire and allow additional negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
The agreement follows 38 days of fighting that began after Trump ordered military operations against Iran on Feb. 28, and then a ceasefire that started on April 7.
Tensions have continued during the ceasefire, with CENTCOM accusing Iran of drone and missile attacks targeting the Strait of Hormuz and Kuwait, while Iran criticized a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
The negotiations remain heavily focused on Iran’s uranium stockpile and nuclear activities. Trump has proposed that Iran either surrender or destroy its enriched uranium under international supervision to prevent the terrorism-backing regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iranian officials continue to insist their nuclear program is peaceful and that domestic enrichment is a sovereign right.
Iran has been found to have enriched its uranium to 60 percent purity, far exceeding the 3 to 5 percent needed for civilian nuclear power. Further enriching uranium from 60 percent to the 90 percent needed for weapons-grade material can be done in a matter of weeks.
Bushehr is home to Iran’s first nuclear power station, which was connected to the country’s national power grid in 2011, according to Iranian state media reports at the time. The Russian-built facility is located about 1,200 kilometers south of Tehran along Iran’s southern coast.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency said the Bushehr plant initially supplied 60 megawatts of electricity to the grid, with plans to gradually increase production toward its 1,000-megawatt capacity.