Tehran, Iran - Iranian officials on Friday said a US F-15 fighter jet was shot down over the Southern Tehran Province.

A statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's elite military force, initially misidentified the fighter jet as an F-35 and claimed it was shot down over Iranian airspace by a new, advanced defense system.

"Due to the complete destruction of the aircraft, there is no information regarding the fate of the pilot," the statement said. It is unlikely that the pilot survived, the IRGC said.

An Iranian official later told Drop Site News that the jet model was a F-15, and confirmed that the pilot had not been able to eject.

There was no initial confirmation of the incident from the US, which has been waging an unprovoked war against Iran alongside Israel since February 28.

In mid-March, an F-35 was hit by suspected Iranian fire and made an emergency landing at an unidentified US air base in the Middle East

US Central Command has repeatedly denied Iranian reports of successful takedowns of fighter jets.

The F-35 jet, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is one of the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world. There have been no confirmed cases to date of an F-35 being shot down in an armed conflict.