A United States service member who had been missing behind enemy lines in Iran has been rescued, President Donald Trump announced in a social media post early Sunday, bringing an end to a frantic multi-day search-and-rescue operation that unfolded across the mountainous terrain of Iranian territory.
The pilot was aboard an F-15E Strike Eagle that was shot down by Iran on Friday, marking the first US aircraft to crash in Iranian territory since the conflict began in late February. A second crew member had been rescued earlier. Trump said the recovered aviator is injured but “will be just fine,” and described the rescue operation as involving dozens of aircraft and round-the-clock surveillance. “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. Iran had publicly promised a reward for anyone who turned in the “enemy pilot” during the search.
The rescue comes days after Trump declared last week that the US had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days after that statement, Iran shot down two US military aircraft, demonstrating the continued capacity of the Iranian military to strike back despite the sustained bombing campaign against it. The second aircraft lost was a US A-10 attack plane. The status of its crew and the exact location of that crash had not been confirmed as of Sunday.
The war, which began with joint US-Israel strikes on 28 February, has now killed thousands of people, disrupted global financial markets, cut off critical shipping routes including the Strait of Hormuz, and driven fuel prices to multi-year highs worldwide. Both sides have struck civilian targets during the conflict, drawing warnings from international observers of possible war crimes.
