JERUSALEM — President Trump announced early Sunday that the U.S. had rescued an aviator nearly two days after he was shot down over Iran.
The extraction came after a frantic search in what appears to be a remote, mountainous region of Iran. A second crew member had been rescued Friday, soon after the F-15E Strike Eagle crashed. It was the first U.S. aircraft to be downed by Iranian fire since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.
“This is the first time in military memory that two U.S. Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND!”
Here’s what we know about the rescue:
Frantic search behind enemy lines
The operation began with a deception campaign launched by the CIA, a senior U.S. administration official said Sunday.
Before locating the airman, the CIA spread word inside Iran that U.S. forces had already found him and were moving him on the ground for exfiltration, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public. The campaign managed to confuse Iranian authorities while the agency conducted its search and rescue operations, the official said.
Those operations involved “dozens of aircraft,” armed with lethal weaponry, Trump said. Iran had promised a sizable reward to anyone who captured the service member.
“This brave Warrior 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,” Trump wrote.
The difficult rescue came after a Friday operation to save the first airman was conducted in “broad daylight,” Trump wrote. He said the White House initially had avoided confirming the rescue to avoid jeopardizing the search for the second aviator.
Wounded but expected to recover
Trump said that the airman held the rank of colonel and had been seriously wounded, but that he would be “just fine.”
Trump gave no details about the first crew member’s condition.
Wreckage said to be of other U.S. aircraft
Iran’s state TV showed a picture of black smoke emanating from what it said were a destroyed American transport plane and two helicopters.
A regional intelligence official briefed on the mission said the U.S. military was forced to bring in additional aircraft to complete the rescue because of a technical malfunction. The official said the U.S. blew up two transport planes it was forced to leave because of the mishap. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the covert mission.
Second downed plane
Iranian state media on Friday also said a second U.S. plane — an A-10 Warthog aircraft — crashed after being hit by Iranian forces. The U.S. military has not commented on the status of that aircraft or its crew, but multiple news sources have confirmed the crash and reported that its lone aviator had been successfully rescued.
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