A U.S. Air Force officer whose plane was shot down over western Iran was rescued by U.S. forces early Sunday after evading capture for more than a day, President Trump announced on social media.
“The U.S. Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him. He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, calling the mission “one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History.”
The officer, identified by Trump as a colonel and a weapons officer, was one of two crew members who ejected when their F-15 fighter was hit on Friday. The jet’s pilot was rescued shortly after the shoot-down; the colonel could not immediately be reached, prompting a massive U.S. search-and-rescue effort involving dozens of aircraft, according to the president.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three of the rescue aircraft—flying at low altitudes—took Iranian fire. One was an A-10 Warthog whose pilot kept flying until reaching Kuwaiti airspace, where he ejected and was rescued. Two helicopters were hit but were able to return safely to base.
Numerous videos over the weekend showed aircraft resembling American SAR planes operating in southwestern Iran; NPR geolocated one video to a bridge in Khuzestan province, in a mountainous area about 100 miles inland. Trump used the rescue to assert “overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” a claim some analysts have questioned given that U.S. aircraft were shot down.
These were the first U.S. fighter jets shot down in more than two decades; the last U.S. fighter downing occurred in 2003 during the Iraq war. In mid-March, a U.S. F-35 was struck by a missile and heavily damaged, and the pilot was injured but the aircraft returned to base.
Since the war with Iran began six weeks ago, 13 U.S. service members have died in airstrikes and in an aircraft refueling crash in Iraq. An attack on a Saudi airbase also wounded more than a dozen U.S. troops, several seriously.
Israel helped with rescue
An Israeli military official, speaking anonymously, told NPR Israel shared intelligence with the U.S. and halted Israeli strikes in the search area while U.S. forces recovered the airman. Israel has said it is targeting Iran’s steel and petrochemical industries, which it says support Iran’s economy and military production. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that Israeli strikes have destroyed much of Iran’s steel-manufacturing capabilities; Israel also said it bombed a petrochemical complex used in missile production.
Easter airstrikes in Lebanon
Fighting continued across the region even as many Middle Eastern Christians observed Easter. In Lebanon, Israel launched strikes across the south, in the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs. The raids came amid Israeli claims it was targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who have fired rockets into Israel. United Nations peacekeepers lodged a formal protest after Israeli soldiers destroyed security cameras outside a U.N. base in southern Lebanon; three U.N. peacekeepers were killed last month and several wounded.
Hezbollah said it used a missile against an Israeli warship off Lebanon’s coast; the Israeli military said it was not aware of the incident. Israel ordered residents out of Lebanon’s southern region and warned it may strike the main crossing with Syria, also ordering evacuations there.
Israelis hold anti-war protests
As the conflict enters its sixth week, anti-war protests in Israel have grown. Demonstrations occurred in several cities over the weekend; police broke up a large gathering in Tel Aviv and made arrests. Protesters carried signs bearing the faces of Lebanese children killed in the fighting. One demonstrator told NPR she did not expect the war to produce peace or freedom for Iran. Israel enforces a wartime ban on large gatherings for security reasons, though its High Court of Justice has allowed hundreds to protest.
Russia evacuates Bushehr power plant staff
Russia said it continued evacuating personnel from Iran’s lone operational nuclear power plant at Bushehr amid ongoing U.S.-Israeli attacks. Rosatom head Alexey Likhachev said nearly 200 Russian workers left the facility by bus minutes before it was hit and were en route out of Iran. Likhachev, who has been withdrawing some of the roughly 700 Russian workers at Bushehr since the attacks began, suggested a full withdrawal may be imminent. Iran has accused the U.S. and Israel of repeatedly targeting Bushehr. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was “deeply concerned” about continued fighting near the plant, though no spikes in radiation have been registered.
Trump’s Strait of Hormuz warning
Trump posted on social media that Iran was running out of time to open the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global oil and gas shipments. “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” he wrote, adding: “Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign [sic] down on them.” The deadline was set to expire on Monday; Trump has issued and revised several deadlines since the war began.
Greg Myre in Washington, Daniel Estrin and Itay Stern in Tel Aviv, Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Charles Maynes in Moscow, and Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg contributed to reporting.