Ankur Desai

Until next time, goodbye.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Ankur Desai and at 16GMT on Friday the 3rd of April, these are our main stories.

Iran says it has shot down a US fighter jet over the west of the country.

There's been no official confirmation from the Pentagon, but an unnamed US official is being quoted as saying that a search is underway for the crew.

It comes as Iran has also continued its attacks on its Gulf neighbours, striking critical infrastructure in Kuwait after President Trump threatened to further escalate the American bombing campaign.

Also coming up in this podcast, Burkina Faso's leader tells people that they can forget about democracy and has rolled back on plans to hold elections.

And we also look at South Sudan's rapidly worsening security and humanitarian crisis.

Over 540 children have been registered by UNICEF and protection partners as being unaccompanied, so separated from their families.

And then we have this issue of abduction, which is terrifying for mothers who lose their children and mothers overall.

We begin the podcast with the latest in the Middle East.

Iran says it has shot down a US fighter jet over the west of the country.

At the time of recording, there's been no official confirmation from the Pentagon, but an unnamed US official is being quoted as saying that a search is underway for the crew.

If the incident is confirmed, it would be the first time since the beginning of the war that a US jet has been shot down over Iran.

Mikey Kay, host of the Security Brief on BBC News, gave Tim Franks this update.

This first came to light on some very credible open source intelligence channels about the claims of Iran shooting down an aircraft.

It was originally reported that it was what's called an F-35, fifth generation fighter.

But on looking at the debris on open source intelligence, it's quite clear that the symbology and the markings on a specific part of the wreckage, which was the top end of the tail fin, the tail fin, Tim,

An F-15E basically has two tail fins, and the markings from the livery, which is basically a red strip, through to a badge, which is USAF in Europe badge, that basically aligns that debris, the striking similarity between that debris and an F-15 strike eagle from the 494th Fighter Squadron, which is part of the 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lake and Heath near Cambridge.

And how many crew would there be on board, typically?