Tehran said it had shot down the F-15 warplane and US media reported United States special forces had rescued one of its two crew members, with the other still missing.

Iran's military also said it downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot of that plane was rescued.

The war erupted more than a month ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei, triggering retaliation that spread the conflict throughout the Middle East, convulsing the global economy and impacting millions of people worldwide.

"Things are really hard right now. You can't even plan six hours ahead," a 40-year-old photographer living in Tehran told AFP as fresh strikes hit the Iranian capital on Saturday.

"There's really nothing we can do. We don't have the power to change the situation," said the man, who has been selling his belongings online to make ends meet.

An AFP journalist saw a thick haze of grey smoke covering Tehran's skyline after hearing several blasts over the capital. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted.

- 'Valuable reward' -

A spokesperson for the Iranian military's central operational command earlier said "an American hostile fighter jet in central Iranian airspace was struck and destroyed by the IRGC Aerospace Force's advanced air defence system".

"The jet was completely obliterated, and further searches are ongoing."

An Iranian television reporter on a local official channel said anyone who captured a crew member alive would "receive a valuable reward".

Images posted on social media and verified by AFPTV showed Iranian police firing at a US helicopter in southwestern Iran as US forces searched for the missing airman.

Retired US brigadier general Houston Cantwell, who has 400 hours of combat flight experience, said a pilot's training would likely kick in before he or she parachutes to the ground.

"My priority would be, first of all, concealment, because I don't want to be captured," he told AFP.

Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament, mocked the Trump administration.

He wrote on X: "After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from 'regime change' to 'Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?'

"Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses."

- Strikes on infrastructure -

Strikes by all sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial sites, raising fears of wider disruption to global energy supplies.

US-Israeli strikes on Saturday hit a petrochemicals hub, a cement plant, a trade terminal on the Iran-Iraq border and an area close to the Bushehr nuclear plant, Iranian media reported.

The reports said two people were killed.

UN atomic agency chief Rafael Grossi voiced "deep concern" about the strike near Bushehr, saying it was the fourth such incident in recent weeks.

"NPP (nuclear power plant) sites or nearby areas must never be attacked," he wrote on X, noting however that no increase in radiation levels had been reported at Bushehr.

Iran has retaliated with strikes on infrastructure against US allies in the Gulf region, as well as virtually blocking the Strait of Hormuz -- a vital waterway where one-fifth of the world's crude oil and natural gas normally passes.

Shrapnel from intercepted drones injured four people in Bahrain on Saturday.

Separately, two buildings in Dubai were hit by debris, including one housing the US cloud computing firm Oracle, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said.

- Beirut explosions -

The Israeli military said Friday it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon in the month since fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah began.

Lebanese state media reported that Israel destroyed a bridge in the Bekaa region, and local media said a second bridge was also hit, after Israel said it would strike them.

An AFP journalist heard two loud explosions in Beirut within half an hour early Saturday and saw smoke billowing from one of them.

A hospital in the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre was damaged by Israeli airstrikes on nearby buildings that wounded 11 people, the health ministry said on Saturday.

Strikes destroyed two buildings nearby, an AFP correspondent saw, shattering windows and causing suspended ceilings to collapse in the hospital, the facility's management said.

The Israeli military issued an urgent evacuation warning to residents of Tyre ahead of more planned strikes.

Tens of thousands of people have left Tyre, but around 20,000 remain, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages.

Lebanon's health ministry said Friday that 1,368 people had been killed since the start of the war.

Hezbollah has not announced its losses.

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