DUBAI/washington, April 4 -- A US fighter jet was shot down over Iran and a search-and-rescue operation was underway for any survivors, two US officials told Reuters on Friday, in the first such known incident since the war began nearly five weeks ago. Later, an AP report quoted other officials saying that a crew member was rescued, even though official confirmation for the same was not made by the US government till filing of this report. One crew member was rescued Friday after an American aircraft went down in Iran. That's according to one US and one Israeli official, who both spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive ongoing military operations, reported AP. It was also unclear what aircraft was involved, with reports referring to both an F35 and F-15E fighter jet. The New York Times quoted US and Israeli officials confirming the Iranian claims to have shot down a jet, and other major American outlets reported that US forces had launched a rescue operation. Earlier, several media outlets in Iran, especially the state-controlled TV, said that two US fighter jets, one of them F-35, were shot down and that an appeal was made to people to capture or shoot the pilots of the downed jets. The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command did not respond to requests for comment. The prospect of U.S. pilots being alive and on the run inside Iran raises the stakes for the United States in a conflict that has struggled to win popular support among Americans, according to opinion polls. It also presents a challenge to the U.S. military, which faces the twin goals of trying to save the lives of any surviving U.S. crew and safeguard whoever is involved in perilous rescue missions. Iranian officials called on civilians to be on the lookout for survivors and have flooded social media with images that purport to show wreckage from the aircraft. The governor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province said anyone who captured or killed the crew "would be specially commended," Iran's semi-official news agency ISNA reported. The incident follows threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to bomb the country back to the "Stone Age," including to attack Iran's energy infrastructure and desalination plants, as he presses Tehran to end the war on U.S. terms. So far, 13 U.S. military service members have been killed in the conflict and more than 300 have been wounded, according to the U.S. Central Command. No U.S. troops have been taken prisoner by Iran. While Trump has repeatedly sought to portray the Iranian military as defeated, Reuters has reported on U.S. intelligence showing Iran retains large amounts of missile and drone capability. As of last week, the United States could only determine with certainty that it has destroyed about a third of Iran's missile arsenal. The status of around another third was less clear but bombings likely damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers, Reuters' sources said....