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The US military has rescued the airman of an F-15E fighter jet that was shot down over Iran, ending a complex and high-risk mission inside the Islamic republic.
US President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday: “WE GOT HIM!” He added that the rescued airman had injuries but was “SAFE and SOUND!”
The two F-15E crew members — a pilot and a weapons system officer — ejected after the aircraft was shot down over Iran on Friday.
The US military launched a dangerous combat search-and-rescue mission, which involved aircraft flying low over south-western Iran, that resulted in the recovery of the pilot on Friday.
The missing weapons system officer, who Trump said had the rank of colonel, spent more than 24 hours inside Iran.
Trump said the second airman “was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour”.
The operation involved dozens of aircraft, Trump said, with the US military tracking the location of the missing airman 24 hours a day.
US special forces extracted the aviator, according to two people familiar with the operation. The sprawling rescue mission included all elements of the Joint Special Operations Command, such as elite commando units Seal Team 6 and Delta Force, according to one of the people.
The operation was supported by air cover that included warplanes and MQ-9 Reaper drones to keep Iranian forces away from the airman, one of the people said. The US military also blew up two of its own transport aircraft in Iran during the rescue operation.
“Those are unbelievably highly trained forces,” the person said of the special operators. It “cannot be overstated how dangerous this [operation] was”.
A senior US official said the CIA had launched a “deception campaign” inside Iran to facilitate the rescue. The official said the intelligence agency spread the word inside Iran that US forces had already found the airman and were transporting him to a point from where he could be exfiltrated. They did not specify how the message had been spread.
“While the Iranians were confused and uncertain of what was happening, the agency used its unique, exquisite capabilities to search for and find the American,” the official said. “This was the ultimate needle in a haystack . . . invisible but for CIA’s capabilities.”
The official added that Trump had ordered the rescue mission immediately after the CIA shared the location of the airman with the White House. The US military conducted the operation with the “CIA continuing to provide real-time information”.
In his post on social media, Trump also referred to a second rescue mission that took place on Saturday to recover another pilot.
A US A-10 attack aircraft, designed to provide air support to ground troops, was shot down near the Strait of Hormuz on Friday and its pilot rescued. One of the helicopters involved was fired on during the operation.
In announcing the successful rescue, Trump insisted that the US maintained air superiority over the Islamic republic.
“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” Trump wrote.
Iran’s central military command claimed that two US Blackhawk helicopters and a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft were downed in the rescue operation. State media showed an apparent video of the destroyed planes, which it said had been hit in southern Isfahan.
Search and rescue operations over hostile territory are extremely dangerous, exposing rescue personnel at lower altitudes and ground level to potential enemy attack.
Iran launched strikes late on Saturday on key water and power infrastructure in Kuwait, the Gulf country said, causing “serious material damage” to electricity and desalination facilities.
Kuwait’s Ministries Complex, the headquarters of the oil and finance ministries, was also hit by a drone attack. No injuries were recorded in either attack.
Israel said it had bombed an Iranian petrochemical plant, which it claimed the country’s armed forces used to produce materials for weapons including ballistic missiles.
In a video statement, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone part of Tehran’s “money machine”.
Following a similar strike against Iranian petrochemical facilities last month, Tehran retaliated by striking energy infrastructure in the Gulf, inflicting severe damage on the world’s largest liquefied natural gas facility in Qatar.
Additional reporting by Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
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