Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The United States said Sunday it rescued a service member missing behind enemy lines since Iran downed a fighter jet, as President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Tehran with renewed threats to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump wrote in a social media post that the aviator is injured but “will be just fine,” adding that the rescue involved “dozens of aircraft” and that the U.S. had been monitoring his location in the lead-up to his rescue.
“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.
The airman’s extraction followed a frantic U.S. search-and-rescue operation after the Friday crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle, as Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in an “enemy pilot.”
A second crew member was rescued earlier.
The fighter jet was the first U.S. aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the war, now in its sixth week, erupted.
Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.
The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.
