President Trump announced on social media that a U.S. Air Force officer whose F-15 was shot down over western Iran was rescued early Sunday after evading capture for more than a day. Trump identified the airman as a colonel and a weapons officer and called the operation “one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History,” saying the service member sustained injuries but would be fine.
Two crew members ejected when the jet was hit on Friday. The pilot was recovered soon after the shoot-down; the colonel remained out of reach, prompting a large U.S. search-and-rescue effort involving dozens of aircraft. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three rescue aircraft flying at low altitude came under Iranian fire. One was an A-10 whose pilot continued toward Kuwaiti airspace, ejected there and was rescued. Two helicopters were struck but returned safely to base.
Video circulated over the weekend showing aircraft resembling U.S. SAR planes operating in southwestern Iran; at least one clip was geolocated to a bridge in Khuzestan province 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 downed in more than two decades; the last loss of that kind was in 2003 during the Iraq war. In mid-March a U.S. F-35 was previously struck by a missile and heavily damaged, with the pilot injured but the aircraft returning to base.
Since the war with Iran began six weeks ago, U.S. forces have suffered multiple casualties. Thirteen service members have died in airstrikes and in an aircraft refueling crash in Iraq, and an attack on a Saudi airbase wounded more than a dozen U.S. troops, several seriously.
Israel assisted the U.S. during the rescue, an Israeli military official told NPR on condition of anonymity. According to that account, Israel shared intelligence and temporarily halted strikes in the search area while U.S. forces conducted recovery operations. Israel has said it is targeting Iran’s steel and petrochemical industries, which it accuses of supporting Iran’s economy and military production; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that Israeli strikes had destroyed much of Iran’s steel-manufacturing capacity and hit a petrochemical complex used in missile production.
Fighting continued across the region even as Middle Eastern Christians observed Easter. In Lebanon, Israel launched strikes across the south, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying it targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who have fired rockets into Israel. United Nations peacekeepers filed a 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 were wounded. Hezbollah said it used a missile against an Israeli warship off Lebanon’s coast, but the Israeli military said it was not aware of such an incident. Israel has ordered residents out of southern Lebanon and warned it may strike the main crossing with Syria, ordering evacuations there as well.
Anti-war demonstrations in Israel have grown in the sixth week of the conflict. Protests took place in multiple cities over the weekend; police dispersed a large gathering in Tel Aviv and made arrests. Protesters carried signs bearing images of Lebanese children killed in the fighting. Israel enforces a wartime ban on large gatherings for security reasons, though the High Court of Justice has permitted hundreds to protest.
Russia said it continued evacuating personnel from Iran’s only operational nuclear power plant at Bushehr amid ongoing U.S. and Israeli attacks. Rosatom chief 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 roughly 700 Russian employees 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 fighting near the plant, though it reported no spikes in radiation.
Trump also posted a warning on social media saying Iran was running out of time to open the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global oil and gas shipments. He wrote that he had previously given Iran ten days to “MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT” and said a deadline was approaching, adding a threat that “time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.” The timeline was set to expire Monday; Trump has issued and revised several deadlines since the conflict began.
Reporting for this account included contributions from 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.