No sign of U.S. and Israel's war with Iran easing on eve of 3-week mark

One of America's most advanced fighter jets was forced to make an emergency landing after flying a combat mission over Iran, the U.S. military's Central Command said Thursday.

U.S. military officials told CBS News on Friday that the F-35 made an emergency landing in an undisclosed U.S. air base in the Middle East and that the pilot was in stable condition.

A U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet is seen during a flight demonstration at the Paris Air Show 2023. Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Getty

CNN first reported on the incident and said the jet was believed to have been hit by Iranian fire. If it was, it would be the first successful Iranian attack on a U.S. aircraft since the war started, and it would have come as President Trump said Iran no longer had such a capability.

"Their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft equipment is gone. We're flying wherever we want," Mr. Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office. "We have nobody even shooting at us."

Heavy explosions shook Dubai as air defenses intercepted early incoming fire over the city, where people were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and mosques made the day's first call to prayers.

Bahrain's Interior Ministry said a fire broke out after shrapnel from an intercepted projectile landed on a warehouse, and Saudi Arabia reported shooting down multiple drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.

The renewed attacks came after an intense day that saw Iran hit energy infrastructure around the region and launch more than a dozen missile salvos at Israel following the attack on South Pars.

South Pars, the Iranian part of the world's largest gas field, is located offshore in the Persian Gulf and owned jointly with Qatar. With some 80% of power generated in Iran coming from natural gas, the attack posed a direct threat to the country's electricity supplies.

The Kuwaiti military said early Friday local time that Iran had launched missile and drone strikes on the country.

In a social media post, the Kuwait Armed Forces said that if explosions were heard, "they are the result of air defense systems intercepting the hostile attacks."

An earlier drone strike on Kuwait's state-owned Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery sparked a fire but caused no injuries, the state-run KUNA news agency reported Thursday.  

The Kuwaiti military previously reported that it was targeted with 18 Iranian drones over a period of 24 hours on Wednesday into Thursday, 13 of which were intercepted and destroyed. Two of the drones struck the refinery, the military said. 

Israel pounded Tehran with airstrikes Friday morning local time as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year.

Activists reported hearing strikes around Iran's capital. The attacks came a day after Israel pledged to refrain from more strikes on a key Iranian gas field and Iran intensified attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf.

Israel Defense Forces wrote on social media that it had "begun a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of Tehran."

Iran kept up its own retaliatory attacks on Israel that have sent millions of people to shelters, with sirens sounding across a wide swath of the north, from Haifa to the Galilee to the border with Lebanon.

It also continued its strikes on Gulf neighbors. Heavy explosions shook Dubai early Friday as air defenses intercepted incoming fire over the city, where people were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and mosques made the day's first call to prayers.

CBS/AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran's current leadership structure is "not clear" after a series of targeted missile strikes killed several prominent clerics and leaders during the war. 

Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and other senior leaders were killed in strikes earlier this week, dwindling the number of top officials in the regime still alive.  

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader and son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is believed to have been injured in the strike that killed his father at the beginning of the war. 

"Mojtaba, the replacement ayatollah, has not shown his face," Netanyahu told reporters during a news conference Thursday night. "Have you seen him? We haven't, and we can't vouch exactly what is happening there. There is a cloud here that's not clear."

Netanyahu also speculated that the new supreme leader would not have the same influence as his father. 

"I think the authority and the hold that Khamenei has had is not going to be translated to anyone," Netanyahu said. "Not to Mojtaba, if he's there, and not to anyone else."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that his country's military would hold off on additional attacks against a key Iranian gas field.

Netanyahu also said Israel acted alone in attacking Iran's South Pars gas field.

"President Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks, and we're holding," the prime minister said during a news conference Thursday night.