Israeli attacks kill several in Lebanon, with health workers targeted

More than 400 people have been killed since the ceasefire came into effect in mid-April.

By Al Jazeera Staff and AFP

Published On 22 May 202622 May 2026

Israeli attacks have killed at least 11 people in southern Lebanon, including several healthcare workers.

The attacks occurred on Friday in the Tyre district. They are the latest in a long line, questioning the durability of the shaky United States-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

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list of 3 items

• list 1 of 3At least eight killed in Israel’s air attacks on southern Lebanon
• list 2 of 3US sanctions elected Hezbollah MPs and Lebanese security officials
• list 3 of 3Lebanon’s economy struggles under renewed war and global fuel crisis

end of list

More than 400 people have been killed by Israeli fire since the deal came into force in mid-April. Israel insists it will continue to target the Hezbollah armed group, which opposed the Lebanese government’s agreement on the ceasefire.

Six people were confirmed dead in the municipality of Deir Qanoun en-Nahr in an Israeli attack, including two paramedics and a child. In a separate attack, about 12km (7 miles) away in the town of Hannaouiyah, four paramedics were killed. An attack in the southern city of Nabatieh killed another man.

Israel also carried out several other air raids in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to the state-run National News Agency. The targets included four villages in the Tyre district.

‘Systematic destruction’

The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked health facilities and medical teams in Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of using them to conceal weapons and fighters.

The Lebanese government rejects that claim. It reports that since the latest escalation between Israel and Hezbollah in early March, 116 healthcare workers have been killed, 16 hospitals have been damaged, and 147 ambulances have been attacked.

Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine recently condemned the “systematic targeted destruction of the health sector”.

***

Shailok murderers deliberately targeted health workers - worse than animal butchers

Bersama to contest in Pakatan, BN and Perikatan strongholds, says Nik Nazmi

Bersama to contest in Pakatan, BN and Perikatan strongholds, says Nik Nazmi

By YUEN MEIKENG

Friday, 22 May 2026 | 7:33 PM MYT


PETALING JAYA: Parti Bersama Malaysia will not only be contesting in Pakatan Harapan-dominated seats, but also in Barisan Nasional, PAS and Perikatan Nasional strongholds, says Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

The former natural resources and environmental sustainability minister, who now helms Bersama with ex-economy minister Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli, said the party aims to change the political landscape, end old political dominance and reject compromises made solely for power.


"Hence, we are not only contesting in areas dominated by PKR and other Pakatan parties, but also Barisan and PAS-Perikatan Nasional," he said.

"Bersama will not join any of these coalitions. Instead, we want to ensure that we are an alternative for voters," said Nik Nazmi in a post on X on Friday (May 22).


On Sunday, Nik Nazmi and Rafizi, announced their resignation from PKR to take over Bersama, while also vacating their parliamentary seats.

Wong Chen claims office barred from MyKhas Portal, faces disruption on allocations

Subang MP Wong Chen has claimed his office has been denied access to the government's MyKhas Portal account. - Social media pic, May 22, 2026


Wong Chen claims office barred from MyKhas Portal, faces disruption on allocations


Subang MP says parliamentary office access blocked without notice due to 'instructions of superiors in Putrajaya'


Scoop Reporters
Updated 30 seconds ago
22 May, 2026
12:44 PM MYT


KUALA LUMPUR – Subang MP Wong Chen has claimed his office has been denied access to the government’s MyKhas Portal account, a disruption affecting key constituency allocations and welfare initiatives.

The portal, managed by the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) under the Prime Minister’s Department, is essential for uploading, managing, and processing applications under the Projek Mesra Rakyat (PMR), as well as other critical constituency programmes for Subang residents.

“This service disruption was discovered on Wednesday, 20th May 2026, at 12:00 PM, when my officer attempted to upload several PMR funding applications for schools within the Subang parliamentary constituency,” Wong said in a statement.

“Upon contacting the relevant authorities, my officer was orally informed by a civil servant that access had been blocked on the explicit instructions of superiors in Putrajaya.”

Wong’s office immediately requested restoration and a formal explanation via email on 20th May. Physical copies of the request were hand-delivered to both ICU JPM Selangor and the ICU JPM Headquarters in Putrajaya on May 21. He said as of 10am today, access has not been restored, nor has a written explanation been provided.

He said a review with other government backbenchers in Selangor, including PKR MPs who attended the Hala Tuju Politik Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi event last Sunday, revealed that their accounts remain fully accessible.

“If selective treatment has indeed taken place, it is deeply regrettable and directly contradicts the Madani principles of a fair, transparent, and professional administration,” Wong added.

The Subang MP highlighted his office’s long-standing reputation for professionalism.

“For many years, the ICU JPM Selangor has recognised my office as a model parliamentary office, consistently commended for managing and processing files, documentation, and financial accounts related to government allocations in a professional, orderly, and procedurally compliant manner,” he said.

“Denying us access without notice or justification not only disrupts essential welfare initiatives for the people of Subang, but also unfairly tarnishes the excellent reputation of my administrative staff.”

Wong called the incident “poor governance” and demanded the immediate restoration of access and an official written explanation from the Prime Minister’s Department.

On May 17, Wong signalled a possible departure from PKR, indicating his intention to join Parti Bersama Malaysia (PBM) in the future.

“If I decide to stand in the next general election, it will be as a Bersama candidate,” Wong told Scoop in a brief text message.

The move follows the resignations of former PKR leaders Rafizi and Nik Nazmi, who vacated their Pandan and Setiawangsa parliamentary seats respectively to join PBM. – May 22, 2026

Israeli attack injures three in southern Lebanon - Ceasefire???

 

4m ago

(06:50 GMT)

Israeli attack injures three in southern Lebanon

An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon’s al-Hafour area has injured three people, Lebanon’s National News Agency reports.

Drone strikes also targeted the southern town of Deir Qanoun an-Naher, according to the agency.

***

Ceasefire??? My blardy guli's

Ex-deputy unity minister hails Amirudin’s call against selective loyalty

Ex-deputy unity minister hails Amirudin’s call against selective loyalty


Ti Lian Ker says Malaysia needs more leaders who are willing to defend their principles

Former deputy unity minister Ti Lian Ker said the real struggle is about who governs with honesty, responsibility, and integrity for the sake of the people. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: A former deputy unity minister has hailed Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari’s call for parties not to practise selective loyalty to Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, calling it courageous and rare.

Ti Lian Ker said that in a polarised political landscape filled with extreme rhetoric, Amirudin had chosen to “speak based on principle, not political market demand”.

“Whether one agrees with his politics or not, the courage to speak consistently for national stability and social harmony deserves recognition and respect.


“Malaysia needs more leaders willing to defend principles even when it is unpopular – not leaders who merely follow the demands of political theatre and populist sentiment,” he said in a Facebook post.

Amirudin said yesterday that certain parties would use the pretence of defending the royal institution, race, or religion when they were actually looking to bolster their political position.


These same quarters change their tune when the situation is unfavourable to their interests, he added.

Amirudin was believed to be referring to Perikatan Nasional election director Sanusi Nor, who was charged in 2023 with insulting Sultan Sharafuddin and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Sanusi, the Kedah menteri besar, was initially charged with two counts of sedition, but was acquitted of the charge involving the Selangor ruler after apologising to the sultan.

Earlier this week, Sultan Sharafuddin called for DAP assemblyman Wong Siew Ki and former DAP leader Ronnie Liu to better understand the Rukun Negara and respect the royal institution, following their response to his call for a complete end to pig farming in the state.

DAP’s former Damansara MP Tony Pua then said the powers of the monarch were strictly limited to defined aspects such as Malay customs, Islam, and constitutional roles, prompting brickbats from Umno and PAS leaders as well as a police investigation.

Ti warned against using race, religion, or institutions as an excuse to seize, exploit, loot, or legitimise rent-seeking practices for the benefit of the elites or certain groups.

He said the real struggle was not about who shouts the loudest in the name of race, religion, or royalty, but who governs with honesty, responsibility, and integrity for the sake of the people.

“Exploiting public sentiment in the name of ‘struggle’ is itself contrary to the moral and religious principles of justice, trust, and accountability,” he said.

Ban MPs from polls if they resign before term ends, analyst says

Ban MPs from polls if they resign before term ends, analyst says


3 hours ago
Anne Muhammad


Mazlan Ali says this will prevent MPs and assemblymen from quitting without a valid reason

Analyst Syaza Shukri however said MPs have the right to resign for specific reasons, and that the anti-hopping law is already in force. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: A political analyst has urged the government to enact a law banning elected representatives who resign before their term ends from contesting elections for a stipulated period or fining them.

Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said such an approach was necessary to prevent MPs and assemblymen from quitting without a valid reason.

He said Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad had done a disservice to their constituents by resigning as MPs after deciding to take over Parti Bersama Malaysia.


Rafizi and Nik Nazmi were the MPs for Pandan and Setiawangsa.

“They should pay compensation for the remainder of their term so the government can fund an agency to continue serving the constituents,” Mazlan told FMT.


On Wednesday, the Election Commission (EC) informed Dewan Rakyat Speaker Johari Abdul that the two seats had been vacated.

By-elections will not be necessary since Parliament automatically dissolves in less than two years. However, they may be requested by the speaker if he writes to inform the EC that the ruling party’s majority in the house is affected by the vacancies.

Syaza Shukri of International Islamic University Malaysia meanwhile said it would be undemocratic to impose a law such as that suggested by Mazlan.

She said MPs had the right to resign for specific reasons, and that the anti-hopping law was already in force.

“The anti-hopping law may not apply in Rafizi and Nik Nazmi’s case because they technically resigned (as MPs first). But the point is, we already have a guideline (in the form of legislation) to help maintain political stability.”

She acknowledged however that it would be difficult to enforce, saying “in a democracy, one must find a balance between stability and individual freedoms”.

She said the duo’s resignation as MPs could erode public confidence and cause voters to become cynical, especially if they are seen as having stepped down due to vested interests.

However, she said the episode also presented an opportunity to review weaknesses in existing laws and come up with SOPs or clearer terms and conditions for the resignation of elected representatives.

“Maybe after this, some will look into the loopholes in the anti-hopping law out of concern that other politicians will exploit these loopholes for short-term gain.”

Bersama’s agenda risks backfiring on Rafizi, Nik Nazmi, analyst warns

Bersama’s agenda risks backfiring on Rafizi, Nik Nazmi, analyst warns


Azmi Hassan asks if Bersama’s platform was capable of offering something that is politically distinctive

Is Bersama’s agenda too tightly bound to former ministers Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, asks a political analyst.

PETALING JAYA: Bersama’s newly-unveiled 12‑point agenda will intensify scrutiny on former Cabinet ministers Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, inviting voters to revisit their ministerial records and judge their performance while in office, says an analyst.

Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara said this was the political risk built into the platform itself.

He said many of Bersama’s manifesto promises touch directly on areas both men had influence over while in government.

“They appear to be nothing more than a delayed set of ideas rather than a fresh, new agenda for the country.”

For Azmi, the issue was not so much whether the 12 points looked attractive on paper. Instead, the question is why no visible groundwork was laid when the duo were in positions of authority.

Rafizi served as economy minister in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration from December 2022 until his resignation in June 2025, while Nik Nazmi was natural resources and environmental sustainability minister during the same period but stepped down one month earlier.

Both stepped down from their posts after losing their positions at the party polls, held last year.

Azmi said the “problem” was “most obvious” in areas such as social protection, economic planning, labour dependency, green transition and other reform-heavy portfolios, all now folded into Bersama’s platform.

On the broader political effect of the agenda, Azmi said it made Bersama look too tightly bound to the two men.

“Basically, it is a Rafizi plus Nik Nazmi agenda,” he said.

Azmi said the plan was “very dangerous” because it gave the impression that Bersama’s reform agenda reflects the vision of the two ex-ministers rather than a wider leadership bench.

This, he said, narrowed the party’s political appeal and raised the stakes for both men personally.

“If the agenda fails to convince, the failure would not be seen as the party’s alone, but as a reflection of their lack of credibility,” he added.

Azmi also questioned whether Bersama’s platform was capable of capturing the imagination of the electorate by offering something that is politically distinctive.

“Nothing is very new and nothing is out-of-the-box. There is nothing to attract the people’s trust towards Bersama.”

Azmi pointed to Bersama’s promise of automatic targeted aid, which he said was tied to Rafizi’s previous economy portfolio and his role in introducing the national central database hub, Padu.

This, he said, gave rise to questions about whether Rafizi has proven his ability to build the necessary machinery for successful aid delivery.

The same questions arise with regard to pledges touching national planning, wage growth, housing affordability, energy transition and sustainability, said Azmi.

“Bersama now speaks with the confidence of a party offering solutions, but voters are likely to assess the party’s leaders against what they did when they were in government.”

On May 17, Rafizi and Nik Nazmi announced they were leaving PKR and relinquishing their parliamentary seats to take over Bersama.

They also announced a 12-point agenda involving a new national social security system, universal childcare, affordable housing, as well as housing, education and healthcare reforms.

The newly-revived party’s pledges also included driving economic growth, empowering SMEs, modernising agriculture, working towards energy transition and establishing institutional independence.

***

Progressives will be blardy annoyed if Rafizi take away votes otherwise meant for Pakatan-Anwar and consequently allow PN to win the election.

Goodbye ‘Donald Trump’ forever 😂😂😂

Bangladesh crowds flock to see blond buffalo dubbed ‘Donald Trump’ before Eid sacrifice



A caretaker attending to an albino buffalo nicknamed "Donald Trump" for sale ahead of Eid al-Adha at a livestock farm in Narayanganj. — AFP pic

Friday, 22 May 2026 7:00 AM MYT


DHAKA, May 22 — Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star—an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” due to be sacrificed within days.

Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700 kilogramme (1,500 pound) bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president.

“My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he told AFP at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital Dhaka.


Mridha said a constant stream of curious visitors—social media fans, onlookers and children—have come throughout May, eager to see the internet sensation.


He watched as men poured a cool bucket of water over the bull’s head, running a pink brush through its blond combover, neatly tucked between sweeping curved horns.

“The only luxury he enjoys is bathing four times a day,” Mridha said, stressing that the similarities between the bull and the president stopped at the hair.


Officials from the livestock department said albino buffaloes are extremely rare, and appear white or pink due to a lack of melanin production.

Eid al-Adha

Muslim-majority Bangladesh, a South Asian nation of 170 million people, is preparing for Eid al-Adha, the Islamic “feast of the sacrifice”, later this month.

More than 12 million livestock—including goats, sheep, cows and buffaloes—are expected to be sacrificed during the holiday, when many poorer families get a rare chance to feast on meat.

Mridha said the stress of the crowds had caused the buffalo to lose weight, forcing restrictions on public viewing.

Still, children continue to peer through the gates for a glimpse.

Businessman Faisal Ahmed, 30, was among those who managed to get close, snapping photographs.

“Truly, the features are similar between the buffalo and President Donald Trump,” Ahmed told AFP, after arriving with five friends and relatives to see the animal.

“My nephew took a one-hour boat journey just to come and see ‘Donald Trump’,” he added.


‘Making a sacrifice’

While the Trump buffalo has become a national star online, it is not the only buffalo with a nickname.

His companions include an aggressive bull named “Tufan”, meaning “storm”, a generously sized animal called “Fat Boy” and the gentle-natured “Sweet Boy”.

One golden-haired bull was named after Brazilian footballer Neymar for his bleached-blond cut.

Mridha, who has cared for his four-year-old buffalo for the past year, looked with affection at the animal, snuffling through a bowl of fodder.

“I am going to miss Donald Trump, but that is the core spirit of Eid al-Adha—making a sacrifice.” — AFP

He Knows Who Built That Silence

Murray Hunter


He Knows Who Built That Silence

KL Pundit
May 21, 2026





Khairy Jamaluddin says Malaysia’s historians are cowards. He should read a journal sometimes.


The Charge

In a recent episode of his podcast Keluar Sekejap, Khairy Jamaluddin, former Minister of Health, former Umno Youth chief, and current political brand in reconstruction, called Malaysia’s publicly funded history professors cowards. Ivory tower inhabitants. Silent while misinformation spreads. He said his history podcast, Sejarah Kita, cannot find willing academic guests, which is why an Associate Professor of Arabic language from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) named Solehah Yaacob, who claimed ancient Romans learned shipbuilding techniques from Malay seafarers, has become, by his telling, Malaysia’s de facto number one history expert.

Here is what he got wrong.


The Media-Illiteracy Charge

Malaysian historians are not silent. They publish in peer-reviewed journals, write monographs, present at regional and international conferences, and produce working papers through university research centers: the kind of output that accumulates in databases Khairy has apparently never opened. The scholarship exists. It has existed for decades.

What they are not doing is appearing on Khairy’s podcast.

He has confused his platform with the republic of knowledge. The absence of academic historians from Sejarah Kita is not evidence of professional cowardice. It is evidence that academics publish through academic channels, that peer review does not run through Spotify, and that a politician with a microphone does not automatically command the attention of people who spent years acquiring methodological training he has not.

If Khairy has not read what Malaysian historians have written, that is a reading problem, not a courage problem.

The other question is what Khairy wants. He says he wants historians on his podcast to correct the record. However, “the record” in this context means his record: his platform, his audience, his framing. Academic historians who appear on political podcasts do not walk in as neutral truth-dispensers. They walk in as guests of the host. The host sets the editorial frame before recording starts; the host controls the 90 seconds that are clipped and promoted. If the academic says something inconvenient (say, that the historical roots of Malaysian nationalist mythology are more complicated than any party wants to acknowledge), the host decides what goes to air. Academics know this. That they decline is not cowardice. It is a professional judgment about what “engagement” costs.

The gap between academic output and public reception is not mysterious. Work published in SCOPUS or ISI-indexed journals, the standard markers of peer-reviewed scholarship, is evaluated for methodological rigor, factual accuracy, and contribution to existing knowledge before it ever reaches a reader. That standard is precisely why it does not reach most readers: it is written for specialists, reviewed by specialists, and archived in databases that require institutional subscriptions to access. Alongside this runs a parallel universe of non-indexed publications, government-commissioned reports, and conference proceedings produced specifically to serve political, ethnic, or religious prerogatives rather than to advance knowledge. These circulate freely. They get shared. They find audiences. The gap between what Malaysian historians produce and what the Malaysian public reads is not a failure of historian courage. It is a predictable consequence of an academic environment in which public universities are under pressure to generate outputs that shore up the government’s support base rather than interrogate it. Nobody in Malaysia is making any serious attempt to bridge this gap. Khairy is certainly not.

The historians who do engage publicly, and there are several, often get burned for it. They get accused of political bias. They get hauled before university administrators. They are selectively quoted and misrepresented on social media. The institutional incentives for public engagement in Malaysia are, to put it plainly, terrible. University promotion criteria reward journal output, not podcast appearances. Public commentary on race or religion, the topics Khairy claims historians should address, carries professional risk that a former minister with a political safety net does not face. That is not cowardice. That is a rational response to a hostile environment.

An environment, incidentally, that Khairy’s party helped construct.


Who Built the System

The Biro Tatanegara (BTN, the National Civics Bureau) traces its origins to 1974, when it was established as the Youth Research Unit under the Youth Ministry. It was renamed and transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department in 1981. It operated continuously under BN governments until August 2018, when Pakatan Harapan (PH) won the general election, and the incoming Youth and Sports Minister, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, announced its abolition. For decades, it ran mandatory indoctrination camps for civil servants, scholarship recipients, and university students: camps that participants and former attendees have described as promoting Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy), instilling racial hierarchy, and suppressing questioning of state ideology.

Khairy Jamaluddin served as Minister of Youth and Sports from 2013 to 2018, and as Umno Youth chief from 2008 to 2018, the entire final decade of BTN’s operation. He did not control BTN directly: it sat under the PM’s Department, not his ministry. The charge against him is not personal ministerial control. The charge is collective: he was a cabinet minister and a senior party leader in a government that ran this bureau, defended this bureau, and never once moved to dismantle it while in power.

He never publicly opposed BTN while he held office.

What BTN produced was not a generation of critical thinkers equipped to evaluate historical claims. It produced a generation trained to receive nationalist narratives rather than to interrogate them. It produced the exact epistemic conditions in which Solehah Yaacob’s claims find an audience.

Khairy now complains about the audience.


Solehah Is Not the Problem

Solehah Yaacob is not an anomaly who escaped from somewhere. She is a product. She holds an academic position at a public university. She attracts an audience. She is an Arabic-language specialist arguing that the Romans learned shipbuilding from the Malays. That is not accidental noise in a system where audiences can tell the difference. It is what you get when the institutions responsible for historical literacy are run for decades as vehicles for ideological formation rather than intellectual development.

She did not appear from nowhere. She appeared from a system.

The testimony of BTN alums is on record. A medical graduate who attended a BTN pre-employment induction camp in 2008 described to The Nut Graph a group exercise in which participants were asked how to divide a hypothetical inheritance among three families of different sizes. The facilitator made clear that the correct answer tracked the racial proportions of Malaysia’s population. When she offered a different answer, the facilitator told her he was “worried” about her. The written syllabus drilled participants on the definition of bumiputera under Article 160 of the Federal Constitution and the basis of hak istimewa orang Melayu (Malay special rights). The lesson, she recalled, was that non-Malays should be grateful they were allowed to stay. Other alumni have described being told that Chinese Malaysians were “the Jews of Asia,” that Malays were “God’s chosen few,” and that changing the government would bring conditions comparable to the Khmer Rouge. This was not one rogue facilitator. It was the curriculum, documented in BTN’s own slides and confirmed by multiple independent accounts spanning decades.

The question worth asking is not why Solehah exists. The question is: why are the institutions that should have produced her critics instead producing her audience?

Moreover, Khairy’s framing collapses entirely here. He presents the problem as historians failing to enter the public arena. The actual problem is an audience that was never equipped to evaluate competing claims in the first place: an audience that went through a school system where the history syllabus was written to produce national loyalty, through university orientations where BTN set the ideological frame, and into a media environment where state broadcasters and loyalist newspapers spent decades amplifying the same nationalist narrative. You do not fix that by getting a historian onto a podcast. You fix it by not building the system that way. That option was available forty-four years ago. No one in Barisan Nasional took it.


The Rehabilitation Read

Khairy lost his seat in GE15. His own party bumped him from Rembau, the constituency he had held for three terms, and sent him to contest Umno-hostile Sungai Buloh instead. He is building something new now: the public intellectual brand, the podcast network, the man brave enough to say what others will not. Calling out cowardly professors fits that brand perfectly. It positions him as the honest outsider willing to name the problem.

He is not an outsider. He spent a decade as Umno Youth chief and held three cabinet portfolios.

The problem he is naming is one his party spent four decades building. He knows this. The silence he is complaining about did not arrive from nowhere. The epistemic decay, the institutional rot, the universities that cannot produce credible public historians: all of it was built, funded, and defended by the coalition he served.

He knows who built that silence.


KL Pundit is a scholar based in Malaysia. He writes on contemporary affairs, history, and politics.

42 U.S. Aircraft Lost in 40 Days — What Weapons Did Iran Use to Hit F-35 & Dozens of Other American Warplanes?

Thursday, May 21, 2026


42 U.S. Aircraft Lost in 40 Days — What Weapons Did Iran Use to Hit F-35 & Dozens of Other American Warplanes?

By Sumit Ahlawat


The US lost/significantly damaged as many as 42 aircraft during its 40-day war with Iran, according to a new US Congress report. These aircraft losses included fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and uncrewed aircraft.
US foreign policy

The losses also include aircraft lost in friendly fire incidents, destroyed by drones while still on the tarmac of air bases, and shot down in the air by Iranian missiles.

Furthermore, an analysis of US losses reveals a clear pattern: while MQ-9 Reaper drones were regularly shot down throughout the conflict, the majority of US fighter jets lost were downed during the final days of the war.

This pattern clearly suggests that as the war progressed, Iran learned how to optimally use its limited air defense assets.

According to defense expert and popular commentator Patricia Marins, Iran studied the flight patterns of American fighter jets during the nearly 40-day war and deployed new units with a different tactical bias. She suggests that by the fifth week of the war, the US Air Force (USAF) military tactics had become excessively predictable, giving Iran the ability to be far more efficient.

The US fighter pilot behavior, their standard entry and exit points, operational altitudes, aerial refueling schedules, and electronic jamming patterns were all fairly well known to Iranians by the last phase of the war, allowing Tehran to achieve multiple aerial shoot-downs of US fighter jets.

Which 42 Aircraft Were Lost by the US Air Force?

According to the US Congress report, the USAF lost:

• Four F-15E Strike Eagle Fighter jets
• One F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter jet
• One A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft
• Seven KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft
• One E-3 Sentry AWACS
• Two MC-130J Commando II Special operations aircraft
• One HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter
• 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones
• One MQ-4C Triton drone

The US Congress report also includes a brief description of how the USAF lost all these aircraft.

How The US Air Force Lost 42 Aircraft?

On March 2, CENTCOM reported that three F-15Es were shot down and destroyed by friendly fire over Kuwait; all six aircrew ejected safely and were recovered.

The fourth F-15E was shot down by Iran during combat operations over Iran on April 5; both aircrew were safely recovered during separate search-and-rescue operations.

The USAF lost seven KC-135 Stratotankers. On March 12, CENTCOM reported that two KC-135s were involved in an incident over friendly airspace; one aircraft crashed in Iraq, resulting in the deaths of all six aircrew. The second KC-135 made an emergency landing at an undisclosed location in the region where U.S. forces are hosted.

Just two days later, on March 14, media reports claimed that five KC-135s were damaged while on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, during an Iranian missile and drone attack.

Similarly, on March 28, one E-3 was struck and damaged while on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, during an Iranian missile and drone attack.

Two MC-130J Commando II special operations aircraft were self-destroyed by the US Army on April 5, after they became immobilized in Iran while supporting search-and-rescue operations for a downed F-15E pilot.

Another HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search-and-rescue helicopter was lost when it sustained damage from small-arms fire during the same search-and-rescue operation for the downed F-15E pilot.

During the 40-day war, the USAF also lost as many as 24 MQ-9 Reaper medium-altitude long-endurance uncrewed aircraft. This number is significant because it shows that Iranian sensor belts and air defense units have no trouble picking up these expensive drones.

On April 14, one MQ-4C Triton high-altitude long-endurance uncrewed aircraft crashed in a mishap.

However, the biggest shock for the USAF during the entire Operation Epic Fury came on March 19, when Iran was able to damage an F-35A fighter jet over Iranian airspace.

The stealth fighter jet sustained damage in the attack but managed to make an emergency landing at a US military base in the region. Still, the event was significant as this was the first time ever that a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet was hit in the air.

The Iranian success in detecting and hitting the F-35 had global repercussions, since the fighter jet is used/ordered by 19 countries.

The total cost of these aircraft that the USAF lost in the Iran War is estimated to be over USD 2.6 billion.

In summary, the USAF lost five aircraft in accidents and friendly fire incidents, six aircraft were lost on the ground in Iranian missile and drone attacks, two aircraft were self-destroyed by US forces, and four aircraft were hit by Iranian missiles/drones or small-arms fire.

Iranian Strikes On Prince Sultan Airbase That Destroyed Six USAF Aircraft

Iran conducted at least two notable strikes on Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB) in Saudi Arabia, one on March 27 that damaged one E-3 Sentry and an earlier strike that damaged five KC-135 Stratotankers on the ground.

According to Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) accounts, on March 27, Iran fired around six ballistic missiles, supplemented by nearly 30 drones.

OSINTtechnical

@Osinttechnical

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Battle-damaged USAF KC-135 tanker returning from the Middle East sporting a number of patched shrapnel holes. Likely one of the tankers damaged in an Iranian missile/drone attack on Prince Sultan Airbase.

1:46 AM · Apr 13, 2026

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Speculation in OSINT suggests that the ballistic missiles used by Iran may have included models such as Fateh-313 (a short-range ballistic missile, SRBM, with precision guidance), Qiam, or other solid- or liquid-fueled types from Iran’s arsenal, such as Emad, Sejjil, or Khorramshahr variants.

The drones used by Iran possibly included Shahed-series UAVs.

However, the high precision of Iranian attacks (the ability to hit specific aircraft rather than just hitting the air base in general) suggests that Tehran possibly received external intelligence support from either Russia or China.

Notably, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy publicly stated that Russian satellites imaged PSAB on March 20, 23, and 25, just before the March 27 strike—and shared this with Iran.

Furthermore, the Financial Times reported that Iran used a Chinese-built spy satellite. It imaged PSAB around March 13–15 for pre-strike targeting and post-strike damage assessment.

Besides, the USAF also lost 25 drones, all of them possibly to Iranian fire.

Even if one discounts the aircraft lost in accidents, friendly fire incidents, and on the ground, the US still lost 29 aircraft in the air: 25 drones (24 MQ-9 Reapers and one MQ-4C Triton), one F-35, one F-15E, one A-10 Thunderbolt II, and one HH-60W Jolly Green II combat helicopter.

Losing 29 aircraft in aerial combat over a 40-day campaign against a second-tier adversary — even after most of its air defense network had been degraded — remains a significant toll.

This raises a critical question: how was Iran able to consistently target and engage these aircraft?

First, let us consider the high MQ-9 Reaper losses.
How Iran Shot Down 24 MQ-9 Reapers

The MQ-9 is a propeller-driven, medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) drone optimized for permissive environments, such as counterterrorism operations over Iraq and Afghanistan, where minimal air defenses are present.

It proved highly vulnerable in contested airspace against a state actor like Iran, which has layered defenses.

Even in Yemen, the USAF lost seven MQ-9 Reapers during six weeks of operations.

The majority of MQ-9 Reapers were shot down by Surface-to-Air (SAM) missiles.

Iran operates layered air defense systems, including legacy Soviet systems such as SA-2, S-300PMU-2, indigenous Bavar-373, and short-range Tor-M1 and Pantsir.

Showdown Near Yemen: MQ-9 Reaper Drone


Most of these AD systems are effective against slow-moving Reaper drones. Losses clustered around well-defended cities such as Isfahan, Shiraz, Qeshm Island, and Bushehr, as well as the Strait of Hormuz, clearly indicating shoot-downs by AD systems.

Writing for National Interest, Harrison Kass explained, “The Reaper was designed for permissive environments where adversaries have no air defenses—a constant reality of the fight against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

“Operating at low subsonic speeds of 300 miles per hour and below, the Reaper isn’t much faster than a Beechcraft, meaning the drone is easy to shoot down with a missile.”

“In addition to being slow, the Reaper has an enormous radar signature, and it operates with a predictable flight profile, taking long loitering patterns over a given area. These factors, when paired against Iranian air defenses like SAM systems and electronic warfare assets, have created circumstances that made the visible, slow, and predictable Reaper extremely vulnerable.”

However, electronic warfare could also have played a role. Disruption of GPS, datalinks, or communications can force drones into predictable paths, making them easy targets for SAMs.

The HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search-and-rescue helicopter was lost to small-arms fire from Iranian ground forces during the rescue operation for the downed F-15E pilot.

The Downing of F-15E and A-10 Warthog

Iran shot down a F-15E fighter jet on April 3. Iranian state media claimed that the aircraft was shot down by a mobile medium-range SAM like the Third Khordad (Sevvom Khordad) system.

However, US officials and analysts rejected these claims, suggesting that the rare hit was a lucky MANPADS strike rather than a sophisticated radar-guided engagement.

Iran operates hundreds of shoulder-fired MANPADS, including an Iranian copy of the Russian 9K38 Igla or similar heat-seeking missile.

Analysts noted that the F-15 was possibly flying at low altitude, making it vulnerable to IR-guided short-range missiles.

On the same day, a USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warthog) was shot down near the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf during the search-and-rescue mission for the downed F-15E fighter jet.

The A-10 Thunderbolt was probably flying at low altitude to provide support to ground forces engaged in the search-and-rescue mission.

While there is no official explanation, the aircraft could have been shot down either by a short or medium-range SAM or even by a shoulder-fired MANPADS.

However, the real shock to the USAF came when Iran successfully targeted its stealth F-35A fighter jet, making it the first time ever that the fifth-generation aircraft was targeted in its decade-long operational service.

How Iran Targeted Stealthy F-35?

While the official probe is still ongoing, according to media reports and OSINT analysts, Iran shot down the F-35 fighter jet with its missile-drone hybrid, also known as Product-358.

“Product 358”, also known as the 358 missile or SA-67, is an Iranian-developed loitering surface-to-air missile (SAM) designed primarily as a low-cost counter to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones), helicopters, and other slow- or low-flying aerial threats.

It is often described as a hybrid weapon, part missile and part “kamikaze” or loitering munition. Sometimes, it is also called a “drone-based air defense” system. After launch, it can patrol or circle in designated airspace while autonomously searching for targets, then dive in to intercept.

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Another enemy F-35 hit and downed by our #indigenous defence systems. Iran is a force to be reckoned with. #Iran #F35 #War

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The missile is initially launched by a solid-fuel rocket booster, which gets separated after burning out. The missile, then, in its cruise or loitering phase, is powered by a small turbojet engine.

It is equipped with an infrared (IR)/electro-optical seeker for terminal homing. This passive system means it emits no radar signals, making it “silent” and harder for targets to detect via radar warning receivers.

Product 358.


Though the USAF investigation into the incident is not yet complete and Iran has not disclosed which weapons it used to target the F-35 jet, among defense and security analysts, there is growing consensus that the Iranian missile that hit the F-35 was an Iranian Product 358 missile, a curious and genuinely ingenious crossover between a traditional surface-to-air (SAM) missile and a loitering munition.

For instance, Dr. Can Kasapoğlu, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, described the 358 loitering munition as a “natural culprit” for the F-35 hit, highlighting its passive infrared seeker that locks onto engine heat at short range without emitting radar signals, thus bypassing the F-35’s radar-warning receivers.

Similarly, former Indian Air Force fighter pilot Vijainder K Thakur says, “It is hard to predict the contours of future threats. I, for one, am sure that the F-35 that was damaged by an Iranian missile, presumed to be Product 358, did not recognize the drone missile hybrid as a threat.”

The high costs Iran imposed on the USAF during the 40-day war are a testament to its perfection of asymmetric warfare.

Many of Iran’s air defense systems were targeted and degraded during the 12-day war in June 2025. Further, the US and Israel targeted Iranian air defense units on February 28, the opening day of the war.

However, despite these early losses, Iran was able to target multiple USAF aircraft by using its MANPADS, Soviet-era legacy AD systems, and indigenous systems like Bavar-373 and Product 358 to devastating effects.

Iran also targeted multiple USAF aircraft on the ground, possibly using external intelligence, while a few aircraft were lost due to ‘fog of war’ in friendly fire incidents.

Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.