President Donald Trump speaks within the Oval Workplace of the White Home earlier than signing an govt order Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Washington.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Alex Brandon/AP
A U.S. Airforce officer whose airplane was shot down in Iran was rescued by U.S. forces early Sunday after evading seize for greater than a day in enemy territory, President Trump introduced on social media.
“The U.S. Army despatched dozens of plane, armed with essentially the most deadly weapons within the World, to retrieve him. He sustained accidents, however he might be simply wonderful,” Trump mentioned on Reality Social.
The officer’s F-15 fighter jet was shot down on Friday over western Iran, and Trump mentioned “one of the daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. Historical past” was undertaken to rescue him.
Trump mentioned the airman was a colonel and “was behind enemy traces within the treacherous mountains of Iran.”
He was one among two crew members who ejected when their jet was hit. The pilot was rescued shortly after the shoot down, however the colonel, a weapons officer, couldn’t instantly be reached.
The U.S. navy scrambled to launch a large rescue operation. President Trump mentioned in his Reality Social publish that it concerned dozens of plane.
Three of these rescue plane, which had been flying at low altitudes, had been additionally hit by Iranian hearth, in response to a U.S. official who was not licensed to talk publicly.
One was an A-10 Warthog. The pilot managed to maintain flying till he reached close by Kuwaiti airspace, the place he ejected and was rescued. Two helicopters had been hit by Iranian hearth, however had been in a position to make it safely again to their base, the U.S. official mentioned.
Quite a few movies over the weekend confirmed planes and helicopters that intently resemble American search and rescue (SAR) plane flying in southwestern Iran. NPR was in a position to geolocate one of many movies to a bridge within the province of Khuzestan. The bridge is situated in a mountainous space roughly 100 miles inland.
Trump lauded the rescues as proof “that now we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” however the truth that the pilots had been shot down within the first place has brought on some analysts to query this evaluation, which Trump has made repeatedly.
The 2 fighter jets had been the primary shot down in additional than twenty years, the final being in 2003 through the struggle in Iraq.
In mid-March, a U.S. F-35 plane was hit by a missile, inflicting important injury to the airplane and injuring the pilot. NPR was informed on the time that the F-35 plane was in a position to return to its base, however the airplane made a tough touchdown.
For the reason that struggle with Iran began six weeks in the past, 13 U.S. service members have died in airstrikes and likewise an plane refueling crash in Iraq. An assault on a Saudi airbase left greater than a dozen U.S. troops wounded, a number of of them critical.
Greg Myre in Washington contributed to reporting.
