Welcome to meet the press now.

I'm Kristen Welker in Washington, and we are following major breaking news in the war with Iran.

After an American F-15 fighter jet was shot down by Iran today, deep inside

Iranian airspace. It's believed the two pilots ejected from that aircraft. One pilot has been

rescued and is alive, and a search and rescue operation is underway right now for the second pilot.

We're also just learning that two U.S.

military helicopters involved in the F-15 search and rescue efforts were struck by Iranian

fire, but the service members are safe, according to a U.S. official. Iran's state media

released these images of what appear to be fragments of that downed fighter jet. A regional

governor in southwest Iran is calling on Iranians

to try to find the missing American, promising a substantial reward.

This video appearing to show a U.S. C-130 tanker

and two helicopters flying over southern Iran

as the U.S. is conducting its search and rescue operation.

The White House says the president has been briefed on the incident, which marks a significant

escalation in the war. This is the first time that we know of that a U.S. aircraft has been

shot down behind enemy lines since the conflict began almost five weeks ago. Now, all of this comes after President

Trump has for several weeks now been touting the success of the U.S. military operations against Iran

and claiming U.S. dominance over Iranian airspace. Here's just some of what he said,

including during his prime time address, to the nation just two days ago.

Look, in a certain sense, we've already won because we've knocked out their Navy, we've knocked

out their Air Force, and we knocked out all of their communications, their telecommunications,

...