A total of 365 US service members have been wounded in action since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran, according to figures released by the Pentagon.

They come from the following divisions:

• Army – 247
• Navy – 63
• Marines – 19
• Air Force – 36

The death toll remains at 13, according to the figures.

[BBC]

The head of Italy’s football federation (FIGC) has resigned, falling on his sword after the men’s national team failed to qualify for a World Cup for a third consecutive time.

Gabriele Gravina revealed he would step down as the country’s top football official following a meeting held at the FIGC’s headquarters in Rome on Thursday.

His announcement came a day after Sport Minister Andrea Abodi called on him to resign.

Four-time World Cup winners Italy fell at the playoffs again on Tuesday, this time after a penalty shootout against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and will miss this year’s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The shock waves of the latest humiliation for one of the world’s most successful football nations forced Gravina, 72, to go back on his initial plans to wait until a FIGC board meeting next week to announce a decision on his future.

The FIGC said in a statement that a vote for a new president would be held on June 22.

Giovanni Malago, the former longtime head of the Italian National Olympic Committee who was president of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics organisation committee, is reportedly one of the names in the hat.

Before then, head coach Gennaro Gattuso is expected to also step down, while general manager Gianluigi Buffon, the former Italy goalkeeper, announced his resignation on Thursday.

Italy’s failure to reach the first-ever 48-team World Cup – which will feature the likes of Cape Verde and Curacao – led Abodi to release a statement saying: “It’s clear that Italian football needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and that starts with changes at the top of the FIGC.”

[Aljazeera]

Iranian forces have said they struck down two fighter jets belonging to the United States military, one over the southwest part of the country and another around the Strait of Hormuz.

A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said on Friday that air defences completely destroyed one F-15 jet. Later in the day, the Iranian military said it targeted an A-10 US aircraft that crashed into the Gulf.

The New York Times had cited unidentified officials as saying that the A10’s pilot was safe after the crash.

But the fate of at least one pilot from the downed F-15 crew is unknown. Several US media outlets reported that one crew member of the jet was located and rescued by US forces, but the other remains missing.

US President Donald Trump told NBC News on Friday that the downing of the jet will not affect the prospect of talks with Tehran. “No, not at all. No, it’s war. We’re in war,” he said.

State media outlets in Iran showed photos of the wreckage of the F-15 jet and what appears to be an ejection seat with an attached parachute.

After the jet was downed, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf mocked Trump’s repeated claims of victory in the war.

“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?’” Ghalibaf wrote in a social media post.

There was no immediate comment on the incident from the Pentagon and US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees military operations in the Middle East and much of Asia.

[Aljazeera]