A deception campaign and reaper drones: How US commandos rescued airman trapped in Iran in ‘daring’ operation

US special forces carried out a daring rescue mission to bring back an airman stranded behind enemy lines after Iran shot down a $31m fighter jet on Friday.

Donald Trump said on Sunday that dozens of military aircraft had raced to rescue the missing weapons-system officer of a two-seat F-15E after the pilot ejected and was rescued under fire.

The president said that the injured airman “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”.

The rescue mission encountered fierce resistance from Iran, with the Iranian military claiming to have taken down several American warplanes.

Trump said no casualties were reported from the mission, which he described as the first time in US military history that two pilots had been rescued, separately, deep in enemy territory.

The announcement came just hours before Trump doubled down on his threats to strike Iranian energy infrastructure as soon as Tuesday in an expletive-laden rant on social media, with his stated deadline of Monday afternoon for Iran to “make a deal or open the Strait of Hormuz” fast approaching.

Here’s what we know so far:

How did it happen?

The F-15E Strike Eagle – an all-weather jet designed for air-to-ground and air-to-air missions – was shot down by Iranian defences on Friday morning, according to Iran.

Two crew members were on board the jet when it was downed: a pilot and a weapons-system officer in the back, responsible for selecting targets and making sure the weapons are properly calibrated to targets.

It is still unclear what weapon Iran used to take down the jet, and the US has not revealed what it was doing at the time, or where. US Central Command is yet to comment.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command said it used a new air-defence system on Friday, which targeted a US fighter jet, three drones and two cruise missiles.

“The enemy should know that we rely on new air-defence systems built by the young, knowledgeable, and proud people of this country, unveiling them one after another in the field,” a spokesperson said.

What did the rescue mission involve?

The pilot safely ejected and was rescued by two military helicopters on Friday. One helicopter was hit by small arms fire, wounding crew on board, but escaped, according to CBS, citing US officials.

A pilot also ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft involved in the rescue mission after it was hit over Kuwait and crashed, officials told Reuters.

Focus then fell on the missing weapons-system officer, trapped in Iran with only a handgun to defend himself, according to two US officials.

C-130 cargo planes and H-60 helicopters began flying low over Iran, according to video published on social media. At this point, elite troops with mounted .50 machine guns would typically be scanning the ground for threats en route to the location of the stranded airman, according to The Wall Street Journal.

US forces reportedly used bombs and covering fire to keep Iranian troops away from where the injured airman was believed to be hiding.

MQ-9 Reaper drones protected the crew member by striking Iranian military-aged males thought to be a threat who were within 3km of the airman, a person familiar with the operation told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Officials said that US commandos recovered the officer in an operation involving dozens of special forces personnel. A senior Trump administration official told NBC the rescue was made possible by the support of the CIA, alerting the Pentagon and the White House to the airman’s location.

“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 [the] CIA’s capabilities.”

The CIA reportedly engaged in a deception campaign, spreading false information that the airman had already been found and recovered, according to CBS.

A US official told Reuters that US forces had to destroy at least one of the aircraft used in the rescue mission because it had malfunctioned.

What has Trump said?

Trump announced on Sunday morning that the second airman had been recovered and was “safe and sound”.

He wrote on Truth Social that the “highly respected Colonel”, who has not been identified, had “sustained injuries, but he will be just fine”.

He also said that not a single American was killed or wounded in either operation to rescue the airmen.

Trump added that US forces had been monitoring the officer’s location constantly during the rescue, which he said involved dozens of US aircraft armed with “the most lethal weapons in the world”.

The president said the mission showed the US had air superiority in the conflict with Iran. He said the US would never leave a US “warfighter” behind.

How has Iran reacted?

Iran’s joint military command said that new air defences had shot down the F-15E fighter jet over Iran.

The elite Revolutionary Guard claimed that several aircraft were also destroyed during the rescue mission. They said nomadic tribes living in the country’s mountains shot two Black Hawk helicopters during the initial operation.

An Iranian military spokesperson also said a C-130 military transport plane and two Black Hawk helicopters were among the downed craft.

Iranian officials had urged citizens to help find the missing officer, hoping to gain leverage against Washington. Had Tehran captured the airman, it would have put more pressure on Trump to end a conflict already unpopular in the US.

The conflict has killed 13 US service members, with more than 300 wounded, US Central Command says. No US troops have been taken prisoner by Iran.