US Navy Seals staged a rescue mission deep inside Iran to retrieve a missing airman after he alerted the CIA to his mountain hiding place, according to emerging accounts of the raid.
President Donald Trump announced the rescue of the stranded weapons officer, one of two US troops who ejected from a F-15 fighter jet shot down by Iran on Friday. The pilot was also recovered.
Mr Trump called it “one of the most daring rescue operations in American history”. Iran says it destroyed additional US aircraft in the process, and that the whole incident undermines the Pentagon's claims of air superiority in the war.
The stakes were high for Mr Trump. Failure to recover the pilot could have led to his capture by Iran, handing the regime a huge propaganda win and bargaining chip. It would also have brought back memories of the bungled 1979 hostage rescue in Iran that helped sink Jimmy Carter's presidency.
Here is what we know so far:
Evading capture
The F-15E fighter jet was shot down on Friday. Accounts given to US media say the pilot was swiftly rescued, while the weapons officer was forced to fend for himself in Iran's mountainous landscape, armed with only a handgun.
US officials told Axios that the crew members had made contact with their communications systems, but that it took the CIA's “unique capabilities” to locate the weapons officer deep inside Iran. The agency then informed the White House and the Pentagon.
Mr Trump said the colonel was “being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour”. The New York Times reported that US aircraft had bombed Iranian convoys to keep them away from the airman's hiding place. It said the airman had hiked up a ridge line as he evaded capture for more than 24 hours.
Overnight raid
The raid to rescue the colonel took place in the night from Saturday to Sunday. US officials described a large-scale operation involving dozens of American personnel, warplanes and helicopters.
The New York Times said the Navy's Seal Team Six was sent into action to retrieve the colonel. Seals – their name stands for sea, air and land – are the special operations unit that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.
Iran's state television said the rescue mission took place at an abandoned airport south of Isfahan in central Iran. What unfolded is less clear, with accounts differing on whether US and Iranian troops directly engaged in combat. But the raid ended with the colonel in the hands of US troops, who are said to have airlifted him to Kuwait.
Mr Trump said the airman “sustained injuries, but will be just fine”. He said no other US personnel were harmed.
“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,” he said.
An Israeli security official told Reuters that Israel had halted attacks in the area to enable the rescue mission, and offered intelligence help to the US.
Iranian account
Iran disputed Mr Trump's account, saying the “timely arrival” of its forces had disrupted the rescue mission.
An army spokesman said four US aircraft – two C-130 transport planes and two Black Hawks – were destroyed during the operation. US officials told CBS News said the two transport planes were “demolished” to prevent Iran capturing them.
“It was proven to everyone that the weak and bankrupt American army is not considered a dominant and superior force,” the Iranian armed forces spokesman said. The military also said US drones had been destroyed near Isfahan.
Iran did not explicitly deny that the airman was retrieved. But the army called the mission a “complete failure”, and Fars news agency commented that Mr Trump had not released any images of the rescued colonel.
Saeed Jalili, a prominent Iranian politician, said Mr Trump had made a bad situation worse. “The US President sought to restore America’s lost prestige after the destruction of his fighter jet, but in doing so, he also lost several aircraft, helicopters, and his forces,” he said.
