US forces safely rescued the second F-15E crew member of a two-seat fighter jet that went down over Iran on Friday, two US officials said late Saturday.
The sources said the second airman was pulled from Iran safely, with rescue crews also out of harm’s way.
“He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine,” President Donald Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social, adding that the airman is a “highly respected Colonel.”
The plane’s pilot had been located shortly after the crash.
CIA subterfuge played key role
A senior Trump administration official told NBC News that the second crew member’s rescue was made possible with the help of CIA subterfuge.
The intelligence agency first launched a deception campaign inside Iran, saying US forces had already found the airman alive and were moving him on the ground to remove him from the country, the official said.
“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 in a statement. “This was the ultimate ‘needle in a haystack,’ but in this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for CIA’s capabilities.”
The CIA immediately alerted the defence department and the White House of the crew member’s location, with the president ordering an immediate rescue mission “which the DoW executed with boldness and precision, with CIA continuing to provide real time information,” the official said, using an acronym for Department of War, the administration’s unofficial renaming of the Department of Defence.
Trump hails daring rescue mission
The F-15E strike happened as the president and his administration have received heavy criticism over the war. On Saturday, Trump characterised the rescue as a major triumph in the effort.
“The United States military pulled off one of the most daring search and rescue operations in US history,” he said.
The president credited his military leaders for their diligence, and said he ordered “dozens” of aircraft with lethal weapons to join the search.
“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,” the president said.
Iran claims it shot down US support aircraft
Iran claimed on Sunday that it shot down a US C-130 support aircraft in the southern area of Isfahan.
The plane was destroyed “by heavy fire from a police special forces unit,” the semi-official Tasnim News Agency claimed, citing Iranian police.
Some initial US reports on social media claimed that during the process of rescuing the second crew member of an F-15 fighter jet downed over Iran, US forces blew up their own plane rather than let it “fall into Iranian hands.”
No official statement has yet been issued by the US regarding the Iranian claims.
Regional tensions have escalated since the US and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb 28, killing more than 1,340 people to date, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, as well as Jordan, Iraq and Gulf countries hosting US military assets. Iran has also restricted the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
