Iran on Wednesday (March 25, 2026) claimed its missile hit American aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and shot down an F/A-18, even as the White House boasted of eliminating the Iranian navy, the largest such operation since World War II.
Iranian media outlets published an army claim that its coastal cruise missiles targeted USS Abraham Lincoln and hit an F/A-18 combat jet off its southern port city of Jask.
It circulated an army video that claimed missiles fired by it had damaged the American aircraft carrier, while its modern naval air defence missiles brought down the fighter aircraft
Iran was continuously monitoring the aircraft carrier’s movement, and it would be targeted once it entered the range of the missiles, Iranian Navy commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani was earlier quoted as saying by the media outlets.
It said the Iranian navy fired coastal cruise missiles to target the US aircraft carrier strike group, forcing it to change position. The US Navy did not confirm the hit on USS Abraham Lincoln.
Meanwhile, IRGC, shared a video and claimed in a statement that “An ‘F-18’ fighter jet belonging to the invading US Army was hit this afternoon in the skies of Jask, with a precise strike by the advanced and modern air defence system of the Naval Forces…under the command of the country’s integrated air defence network, causing it to crash in the Indian Ocean.”
Hours later, the US Central Command debunked the Iranian claims of shooting down the F/A-18 near Chabahar.
CENTCOM said on X that no US fighter aircraft have been downed by Iran, refuting footage shared by Iranian state media, calling it “fake” news. “No U.S. fighter aircraft have been shot down by Iran,” it added.
In Washington, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, on Thursday (March 26), claimed that the US had destroyed the Iranian Navy’s 140 warships and vessels, including nearly 50 minelayers.
“This is the largest elimination of a navy on the face of the planet in three weeks since World War II,” Leavitt said at her media briefing.
“Compared to the start of the operation, Iran’s ballistic missile and drone attacks are down by roughly 90%,” she added.
The White House spokesperson claimed that the US military was dismantling the Iranian defence military industrial base to prevent future threats from it to the world and the Gulf region.
“Our military remains laser-focused on eliminating the regime’s threat to the free flow of energy through the Strait of Hormuz,” she said.
“Over the weekend, we dropped several 5,000-pound bombs on an underground facility used to store anti-ship cruise missiles and mobile launchers along the coastline,” she added.
The West Asian war, which began on February 28 after the US-Israel airstrikes on Iran, has raged for nearly four weeks now, badly hitting cargo ship movement through the Strait of Hormuz and triggering a spike in oil and gas prices globally.