BREAKING: Trump presses Iran with ultimatum as search continues for missing US pilot
Sources confirm that the following story has emerged from the international scene.
This Saturday, April 4, the US Army continued the search for a missing pilot this Saturday, April 4, for the second consecutive day after the downing of a fighter plane in a remote area of Iran. Meanwhile, Donald Trump reminded Iran of its deadline in a social media post. “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to REACH A DEAL or OPEN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ? Time is running out: 48 hours left before all hell breaks loose on them,” Trump wrote. To display this Truth Social content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies. Accept Manage my options Trump’s latest threat came after a bombing near an Iranian nuclear power plant led to evacuations, and as Tehran announced new attacks and the Israeli military claimed to have detected another missile launch from Yemen. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed to have hit a merchant ship in Bahrain, while maintaining its tight control over the Strait of Hormuz sea route and continuing to attack economic targets in its Gulf neighbors, which it considers linked to the US-Israeli war effort. The economic offensives are also occurring in the opposite direction. An attack on a petrochemical center in southwestern Iran killed five people, according to the deputy governor of Khuzestan province. Image captured from a social media video showing smoke rising at the Mahshahr Petrochemical Zone in Bandar Mahshahr county, Khuzestan province. April 4, 2026. SOCIAL MEDIA via REUTERS – SOCIAL MEDIA The war broke out more than a month ago with the bombings of the United States and Israel against Iran, triggering a retaliation that has spread the conflict throughout the Middle East and shaken the world economy, especially due to the closure of the strait, a vital route for oil and gas. Tehran claimed on April 3 that it had shot down an F-15 fighter jet and US media reported that the country’s special forces had rescued one of the two crew members, while the other remained missing. The US is looking for him to rescue him; Tehran to capture him. The Iranian military also claimed to have shot down a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, and US media indicated that the pilot of that plane had been rescued. To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies. Accept Manage my options An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site. Retry 2026-04-04 19:02 Iran and the United States intensify the search for the missing pilot after the downing of the F-15 © France 24 The local news agency Mehr quoted in an article on April 4 the deputy governor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, Fattah Mohammadi, who stated that the search for the missing pilot counted on “the presence of popular forces and members of the tribes along with the military, and it still continues. He added: “Last night, people fired rifles at enemy helicopters and did not allow them to land.” To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies. Accept Manage my options An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site. Retry Projectile hits near the Bushehr nuclear power plant © France 24 Images published on social media and verified by AFP showed Iranian Police shooting at a US helicopter in southwestern Iran, while US forces searched for the pilot. Bushehr nuclear power plant An attack on Saturday near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant killed a guard and prompted Russia — which partially built the facility and helps run it — to announce the evacuation of 198 workers and condemn the attack as “an evil act.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned that continued attacks on the plant, located on the southern coast, could end up causing radioactive fallout that would “end lives in the capitals of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), not in Tehran.” Bushehr is considerably closer to Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar than to the Iranian capital. Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote in X that no increase in radiation levels had been recorded at the site, but expressed “deep concern” about what he said was the fourth such attack in recent weeks. To display this content from X (Twitter), you must allow audience measurement and advertising cookies. Accept Manage my options There were also more attacks on Tehran, where a thick cloud of gray smoke was seen covering the horizon. “This war was not about freedom… we have simply ended up trapped in something even wilder,” Faezeh, 31, declared via a messaging app from Tehran. The US and Israeli strikes on Saturday hit a petrochemical center, a cement plant and a commercial terminal on the Iran-Iraq border, where one person was reported dead. Iran has responded by launching missiles and drones against Israel and US allies in the Gulf. Shrapnel from intercepted drones injured four people in Bahrain on Saturday, and two buildings in Dubai were hit by debris, including one that houses the American cloud computing company Oracle, authorities said. Adapted from its original English version
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by France 24 – Noticias y actualidad internacional en vivo and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.