For nearly 48 hours, US and Iranian forces were hunting the same man in the mountains of Iran. One wanted to bring him home. The other wanted to capture him. On Sunday, the US airman was finally rescued. Here is what we know about the operation that retrieved him and what we don’t.
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the US military had pulled off “one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History,” retrieving a weapons systems officer who had been missing inside Iran for nearly two days after his F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down on Friday.
“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 said.
The rescued officer had sustained injuries, but Trump said he would “be just fine.” No members of the rescue team were killed or wounded. Trump described the operation as “the first time in military memory that two US pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in enemy territory.”
The pilot had been recovered shortly after the aircraft was downed, and the search for the weapons systems officer stretched over two days.
How It Began?
The F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over southwestern Iran on Friday, the first confirmed loss of a US combat aircraft inside Iran since the war began on February 28.
Both crew members, a pilot and a weapons systems officer, ejected. The pilot was rescued soon after, but the second airman could not be immediately located.
Iran’s state broadcaster published images it claimed showed part of the wreckage, including the wingtip, the top section of a vertical stabiliser and a damaged ejection seat from an F-15E.
How Did The US Military Pulled Off The Rescue Op?
Trump said the operation involved dozens of aircraft armed with “the most lethal weapons in the world.”
“Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow Warfighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue. At my direction, the US Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him,” he said.
According to the New York Times, Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos carried out the rescue, with hundreds of special operations troops and other military personnel operating deep inside Iranian territory.
US aircraft dropped bombs and opened fire on Iranian convoys to keep them away from where the airman was hiding. Commandos also fired their weapons to hold off Iranian forces as they moved in, though they did not engage in a direct firefight, the report added.
Before the airman was located, the CIA launched a deception campaign, spreading word inside Iran that US forces had already found him and were attempting a ground extraction, a senior administration official told Axios.
The CIA used what officials described as “unique capabilities” to track the airman as he moved through mountainous terrain and evaded locals. Once his precise location was confirmed, the CIA shared it with the White House, the Pentagon and the US military, and a special forces team was inserted nearby on Saturday night.
Iran’s military said US forces used an abandoned airstrip to conduct the operation.
What Aircrafts And Equipments Did The US Military Use?
The rescue took place deep inside Iran’s air defence zone, under constant missile and radar threat. US forces reportedly used HH-60W Jolly Green II rescue helicopters, A-10 Warthog attack jets, an HC-130 rescue mid-air tanker, F-35 stealth jets operating at standoff range, special forces units and a dedicated combat search and rescue team.
The HH-60W Jolly Green II, the US Air Force’s newest combat search and rescue helicopter, has been described as the centrepiece of the operation. As the helicopters raced to find the pilot, the A-10 provided cover.
What We Still Do Not Know?
The precise details of the rescue, including where exactly it took place, have not been made public. Trump confirmed that the military had been tracking the airman’s location around the clock and planning the operation, but the full sequence of events may take time to emerge. Questions also remain about the nature and extent of the airman’s injuries.
Iran Says It “Foiled” The US Op
Iran’s military flatly denied that the rescue succeeded. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the military’s central command, Khatam Al-Anbiya, said the US operation had been “completely foiled.”
“The so-called US military rescue operation, planned as a deception and escape mission at an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan under the pretext of recovering the pilot of a downed aircraft, was completely foiled,” he said in a video statement carried by state television.
He claimed that “two C-130 military transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters were destroyed” during the operation, and said Trump had engaged in “empty rhetoric and diversion, although the reality on the ground demonstrates the superior position of Iran’s powerful armed forces.”
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency claimed that “several enemy American aircraft” had been destroyed in the Isfahan region, including two Black Hawk helicopters and a C-130 military transport aircraft. The Revolutionary Guards said a US aircraft searching for the missing crew member had been “destroyed by the fighters of Islam.”
The Iranian army also claimed to have downed an Israeli drone. Iranian state media reported at least five people killed in the operation.