An American F-15 fighter jet has gone down over Iran, according to US officials cited by NBC News, as the US military mounted a search and rescue operation for the aircraft’s two-person crew.

The two-seat aircraft came down earlier on Friday inside Iranian territory, NBC reported, citing two US officials. The officials said a rescue effort was under way but did not publicly explain how the jet was lost.

Reuters separately reported that an American official said the aircraft had been shot down. There has been no immediate detailed public statement from the Pentagon or US Central Command.

Iranian state and state-linked media had been claiming throughout the day that Iranian forces had brought down an American warplane. Some early Iranian reports identified the aircraft as an F-35, but aviation analysts and several Western outlets later said images of the wreckage were consistent with an F-15E Strike Eagle.

The aircraft is believed to have been from the US Air Force’s 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, according to analysis of tail markings visible in images published by Iranian media and cited by multiple news organisations. US officials quoted by several outlets have identified the aircraft as an F-15E, though the US military had not formally confirmed its unit by Friday afternoon.

The fate of the crew was not immediately clear. The F-15E carries a pilot and a weapons systems officer. US officials said search efforts were continuing, while Iranian outlets claimed at least one crew member had ejected. Those claims had not been independently verified.

Associated Press reported earlier that an Iranian provincial television channel urged residents to help locate the crew in south-western Iran and broadcast inflammatory appeals for civilians to find the pilot. There was no immediate official Iranian statement clarifying whether either crew member had been captured.

Images and video circulating online also appeared to show US search-and-rescue aircraft operating in the area, including helicopters commonly used in combat recovery missions. Defence analysts said the activity suggested an effort to recover the missing aircrew from inside hostile territory.

If confirmed as a shoot-down, the incident would mark the first acknowledged loss of a US fighter aircraft over Iran since the current war began in late February. The conflict has already seen repeated Iranian claims of downed US aircraft, though several earlier reports were denied by American officials or later disputed.

The reported loss is likely to deepen scrutiny in Britain because the aircraft is believed to be attached to a squadron based at RAF Lakenheath, one of the main US air bases in the UK. That is expected to add pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s government over the role of US forces operating from British soil, even as ministers have insisted the UK is not directly joining the war.

The situation remained fast-moving on Friday, with no official US account yet released on the exact location of the crash, the cause of the loss or the condition of the two crew members.