US Central Command (CENTCOM) denied Iranian claims that its forces shot down a US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, calling the reports "baseless and not true," the command posted on X on March 5.

The denial came shortly after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its "modern aerospace defence systems" had successfully targeted the two-seat multi-role fighter near Iran's southwestern border on the morning of March 5, Fars News Agency reported.

CENTCOM's swift rebuttal follows a pattern of competing claims throughout the conflict, with Iran's military repeatedly asserting strikes on US assets that Washington has either denied or declined to confirm.

"An aggressive American F-15E Strike Eagle multi-role attack fighter jet was successfully targeted by the IRGC's modern aerospace defence systems on Wednesday morning and crashed on the edge of the country's southwestern borders," Iran's Fars reported.

The IRGC has previously claimed to have struck the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier with four ballistic missiles, sunk vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and destroyed multiple US drones since the conflict began on February 28.

The Pentagon has confirmed some Iranian strikes on US bases across the Gulf but has not verified several of the more dramatic claims.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on March 4 that the US had established control of Iranian airspace and was transitioning from precision munitions to gravity bombs.

He told reporters the military would "take all the time we need" and that additional fighters and bombers were being deployed to the region.

Earlier in the week, Kuwaiti air defences shot down three F-15E jets over Kuwait City in a friendly fire incident; all the pilots successfully ejected.