Mr. Trump: The US carried out a rare operation to rescue the pilot

“We rescued a seriously injured and very brave F-15 crew member from a mountainous area deep within Iranian territory. He was a highly respected colonel. The enemy searched very carefully, mobilized a large amount of manpower and got very close to this person’s location,” US President Donald Trump said in a post on social networks today.

Mr. Trump affirmed that such raids and pilot rescue operations are “very rarely conducted” because of the threat to the US military’s human resources and assets. “This is a very unusual operation. We rescued the pilot in broad daylight, after 7 hours of presence in Iranian territory. All participating soldiers showed great talent and courage,” he said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised this as “one of the boldest search and rescue operations in American history.”

The search and rescue campaign was launched immediately after the US F-15E multi-role fighter was shot down by Iran on April 3. One crew member was rescued the same day, while the other had to hide for more than 36 hours.

According to revelations from US officials, hundreds of soldiers and elite special forces and dozens of aircraft from all military services participated in the campaign. There was no direct fighting between the two sides’ forces, but US soldiers opened fire to prevent the enemy from reaching the rescue area.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) appears to have conducted a diversionary campaign before the start of the mission, in which they broadcast information that the US military had soon reached the pilot and was evacuating him by road. Along with launching a smokescreen, the CIA also used intelligence resources to locate the pilot, who was believed to be hiding in a ravine.

The information was then transmitted to the White House and the Pentagon, leading to the decision to launch a rescue operation.

A US official described the rescue operation as being divided into two phases, including surrounding the area and approaching the target. The operation took place for many hours, lasting from night to day, instead of being carried out quickly at night like normal rescue operations.

A US official told New York Times that two transport aircraft used to evacuate special forces and pilots were trapped at a field base in Iran. Commanders decided to send three more reserve aircraft to pick up the forces at this location, and destroyed two aircraft in trouble to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands.

The Iranian military announced that it had shot down two helicopters and a C-130 plane participating in the search campaign for the US pilot. Images released by Iran later showed the remains of two MC-130J Commando II special transport aircraft, each costing about 114 million USD, along with one or two AH/MH-6 Little Bird multi-purpose helicopters costing 2-13 million USD depending on the version.