The Israeli Air Force (IAF) on Saturday refuted claims that one of its F-16 fighter jets had been hit by a surface-to-air missile while flying over central Iran during an "operational mission" at dawn.
This comes after the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed on Saturday that air defences helmed by the IRGC Aerospace Force had struck the F-16 at about 3:45 AM local time.
The IRGC statement added that the allegedly struck F-16 was the third such "hostile adversary" that it had attacked in recent times, as per a report in semi-official news agency WANA.
The IAF, however, refuted the claim that its F-16 had taken any damage, but did admit that Iran's air defence systems had fired a surface-to-air missile at its fighter jet.
"The crew acted in accordance with procedures, no damage was caused to the aircraft, and the mission was completed as planned," it said in a post on X.
This comes after Iran on Friday claimed it had struck a powerful, fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighter jet belonging to the US, which had been flying "a combat mission over Iran".
Damage from the attack is said to have forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing at a US base in the Middle East, a CNN report said, citing two sources in the know.
If the reports are to be believed, Iran's alleged strike on the F-35—which is designed primarily for stealth—would be the first time Tehran has hit a US aircraft since the war began three weeks ago.
Reports of the strike came as a shock, as they contradicted US defence secretary Pete Hegseth's Thursday claims that the US was “winning decisively” in the war, and that Iran’s air defences had been “flattened”.