UNITED NATIONS (APP – Urdu Point / Pakistan Point News – 5 Apr, 2026) The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency has expressed “deep concern” after Iran reported an airstrike near one of its main nuclear facilities in Bushehr – further escalating the US-Israel war against the Islamic Republic.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the agency was informed of the strike – the fourth such incident in recent weeks – by Iranian officials. Iran also informed the agency that a physical protection employee at the site was killed by shell fragments and that one of the buildings at the site was affected by shock waves and shrapnel.
Grossi stressed that nuclear power plant sites or areas near them should never be attacked, noting that auxiliary site buildings may contain vital safety equipment. No increase in radiation levels was reported after the latest incident.
Grossi reiterated his call for maximum military restraint to avoid the risk of a nuclear accident, and once again stressed the paramount importance of adhering to the IAEA’s seven pillars of ensuring nuclear safety and security during conflict (see below).
The previous strike on Bushehr occurred on March 18, when a building about 350 meters from the reactor was hit and destroyed. No damage to the reactor or casualties was reported, but the agency warned that any attack near nuclear facilities risks violating basic safety principles.
Earlier this month, in a speech to the International Atomic Energy Agency blackboard At the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Grossi stressed the risk of a nuclear accident as a result of the military escalation since Iran “and many other countries in the region that have been subjected to military attacks have operating nuclear power plants and nuclear research reactors.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. military was racing Saturday to find an American pilot who ejected from a fighter jet shot down over Iran, even as President Donald Trump said time was “running out” in his ultimatum to escalate U.S. attacks unless a deal is reached within two days, according to multiple media reports.
The White House has been mostly silent about the downing of the US F-15E fighter jet by Iranian forces since it was first reported more than a day ago, as well as about attempts to recover its two-member crew. US officials said one of them had been rescued, but the condition of the second was not known as of Saturday.
In a social media post Saturday morning, Trump did not address the pilot’s situation.
Instead, he reiterated that the deadline for his threat to bomb Iranian power plants would expire within 48 hours unless Iran agreed to stop closing the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway critical to Persian Gulf oil and gas.
Trump has already postponed the ultimatum twice, saying that talks are continuing between the United States and Iran.
However, Iranian officials have publicly rejected US demands and continued to express defiance after the pilots were shot down on Friday.
“This wonderful, non-strategic war they started has now been demoted from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can someone find our pilots? please?”.
It was not clear how the pilot’s fate might affect Trump’s decision-making process over the next 48 hours as he considers whether and how to carry out his threat.
The downing of the fighter plane on Friday was the first time that American personnel and fighter aircraft had been shot down in Iran since the start of the American-Israeli war in late February. Iranian officials said, according to the New York Times, that Iranian forces are also seeking to arrest the missing American.
An Israeli official told The Times that the Israeli military was exchanging intelligence with the Americans and stopped attacks on Iran in the area where the pilot was believed to have gone missing. The official, who spoke anonymously to discuss the sensitive plans, did not clarify whether Israeli operations were limited to those procedures.
This incident also highlighted Iran’s ability to respond despite weeks of attacks on its military arsenal. Iran continued to fire ballistic missiles and drones at Israel Arab States across middle East, challenging US-Israeli efforts to reduce its capabilities.
The newspaper said, citing American and Israeli officials, that an American Black Hawk helicopter that was participating in the rescue efforts was hit on Friday by ground fire but escaped to safety, and a second American military plane crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway in the Arabian Gulf. The pilot of that plane was rescued.
Elsewhere in Iran, at least one person was killed when a projectile struck the vicinity of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southwestern Iran on Saturday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. news an agency. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had officially informed it of the incident, but no increase in radiation levels had been reported.