United States President Donald Trump has revealed details of a high-risk rescue mission to rescue two F-15 fighter pilots shot down by Iran in mountainous terrain. Trump said that US military personnel involved in the rescue mission of the F-15 pilots faced very close range fire during the rescue mission in Iran.
Trump told reporters at a White House news conference that the operation used 170 planes to rescue the first crew member and another 155 in the second rescue mission. “The second rescue mission involved four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue planes and more. We brought them all in and a lot of it was a hoax,” he said.
The US president added that two airliners got stuck in the sand and had to be blown up to avoid being captured by Tehran’s military.
“US military personnel faced very close range fire during the rescue in Iran,” he said, adding that the military “blew up the whole place”.
Citing “national security,” Donald Trump also threatened to imprison the journalist who first reported on the air force’s rescue operation in Iran. He also demanded that the journalist who first reported it reveal his source.
“The person who did the story is going to jail if they don’t tell, and it won’t be long,” Trump said, without naming the reporter or news organization. But he called the man a “sick man.”
But Trump said the leak of information about the US rescue mission to the Iranians predicted and endangered the officer and his rescuer.
Speaking about the rescue mission, Donald Trump said: “This is a rescue that is VERY historic. It will go down in the history books! I have ordered the US Armed Forces to do whatever is necessary to bring our brave warriors back home.”
“But we leave no American behind in America’s military!” he said.
F-15 fighter crew rescue mission
On Sunday, April 5, President Donald Trump announced that the second airman was “safe” after a search and rescue operation. The first airman was rescued soon after the fighter was shot down.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social: “WE GOT HIM! My fellow Americans, in the past few hours the United States military has conducted one of the most daring search and rescue operations in US history for one of our incredible crew members, who also happens to be a highly respected colonel, and who I am thrilled to report is now SAFE and SOUND!”
As Trump declared victory, Iran said the rescue mission was a “total failure” and claimed its military had destroyed several US military assets during the mission.
