• Mechanical failure forced risky extraction, destruction of US aircraft in Iran.
• CIA ran deception campaign, jammed electronics, bombed roads to aid rescue.
• Airman authenticated his identity to avoid potential Iranian trap for rescuers.

The rescue had unfolded with near‑perfect precision. Under the cover of darkness, US commandos slipped deep into Iran, undetected, scaled a 7,000‑foot ridge and pulled a stranded American weapons specialist to safety, moving him toward a secret rendezvous point before dawn on Sunday.

Then everything stopped.

Two MC-130 aircraft that had ferried some of the roughly 100 special operations forces into rugged terrain south of Tehran suffered a mechanical failure and could not take off, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Suddenly, elite commandos risked being stuck behind enemy lines.

Their commanders made a high-risk decision, ordering additional aircraft to fly into Iran to extract the group in waves — a decision that left the elite commandos waiting for a couple of tense hours.

“If there was a ‘holy shit’ moment, that was it,” said the official, who credited quick decision-making with saving the day. The official, along with others who spoke to Reuters for this story, was granted anonymity in order to speak candidly about the operation.

The gamble worked. The rescue force was pulled out in stages, and US troops destroyed the disabled MC‑130s and four additional helicopters inside Iran rather than risk leaving sensitive equipment behind.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The successful extraction ended one of the most perilous episodes of the five-week-old conflict, averting what could have been a catastrophic loss of American lives and easing a mounting crisis for President Donald Trump as he weighs whether to escalate a war that has already killed thousands.

Downed pilot hit, made contact

The rescued US weapons specialist was the second of two crew members on an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet that Iran said ​on Friday had been hit by its air defences. The US official said the plane was flying over Isfahan province when it was brought down, and the two airmen ejected separately. The pilot was rescued while the second airman remained in Iran.

US air crews are trained in Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) techniques if downed behind enemy lines, but few are fluent in Persian and face a challenge in staying undetected while seeking rescue.

A US source familiar with some of the operational details said the American officer, whom Trump said held the rank of colonel, sprained his ankle and hid in a crevice on a hilltop.

The official said the airman later established contact with the US military and authenticated himself – a critical step to ensure rescue forces were not walking into a trap.

The CIA had run a deception campaign earlier, hoping to confuse Tehran by planting information inside Iran that US forces had already located the missing airman and were moving him before the operation took place, a senior Trump administration official said.

But the US military took additional steps, jamming electronics and bombing key roads around the location to prevent people from getting close, the US source familiar with the planning said.

The source told Reuters that the aircraft eventually sent to extract the airman and rescue forces were much smaller turboprop aircraft, capable of landing on small airfields and relatively light.

Throughout the operation, the White House, the Pentagon and the US military’s Central Command were uncharacteristically silent. Trump was so relatively quiet that a local reporter went to check if he was at Walter Reed Hospital.

Once the mission was complete, Trump was triumphant.

“Over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History,” Trump said in a statement, adding that the airman was injured, but “he will be just fine.”

US aircraft hit

The initial search effort encountered fierce resistance from Iran when it began on Friday, after the F-15 pilot was initially rescued.

Reuters reported on Friday that two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search were hit by Iranian fire but escaped from Iranian airspace.

In a separate incident, a pilot ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft after it was hit over Kuwait and crashed, the officials said, though the extent of crew injuries was unclear.

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

While Trump has repeatedly sought to portray the Iranian military as being in tatters, its ability to repeatedly hit US aircraft is significant, military experts say.

​Iran’s Khatam ​al-Anbiya joint military command said ​on ​Saturday the military used a ​new air ‌defence system on Friday ​to ​target a US ⁠fighter jet.

Reuters first reported on US intelligence showing that Iran retains large amounts of missile and drone capability.

Until just over a week ago, the US could only determine with certainty that it had destroyed about one-third of Iran’s missile arsenal.

The status of about another third was less clear, but bombings probably damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers, Reuters sources said.

Appearing unburdened after the successful rescue, Trump used harsh language on Sunday to threaten Tehran ​if it did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz for oil flows vital to the world economy.

WASHINGTON: American commandos deployed deep into Iranian territory to rescue a downed airman, US news outlets reported on Sunday, hours after President Donald Trump announced that the crew member had been recovered “safe and sound.”

Tehran said this week it had shot down an F-15 warplane, the first US fighter jet to go down inside Iran since the start of the war. Washington has not confirmed the details of how the fighter went down.

Trump said early on Sunday the US military had “pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. [US] History, for one of our incredible Crew Member Officers, who also happens to be a highly respected Colonel, and who I am thrilled to let you know is now SAFE and SOUND!”

Navy Seal Team 6 commandos were tasked with extracting the airman, while US attack aircraft dropped bombs and opened fire on Iranian convoys to keep them away, the New York Times reported, citing an unidentified official.

The airman, a weapon systems officer, was wounded after the ejection but could still walk, evading capture in the mountains for more than a day, according to news outlet Axios, which cited a US official.

The unidentified airman was equipped with a pistol, a beacon and a secure communications device to coordinate with rescuers, the New York Times reported.

American commandos converging on the officer fired their weapons to keep Iranian forces away from the rescue site, the Times said.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he had directed the US military to send “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.

Two of the planes meant to transport the airman and his rescuers to safety were stuck in a remote base in Iran and had to be destroyed to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands, the New York Times and CBS reported.

US forces then used three other transport planes to carry the airman and his rescuers out of Iran.

The Iranian military said on Sunday the US operation to rescue the airman had used an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan province.

“The so-called US military rescue operation, planned as a deception and escape mission at an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan under the pretext of recovering the pilot of a downed aircraft, was completely foiled,” said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the Iranian military´s central command.

Zolfaghari also said two US “C-130 military transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters were destroyed”.

The CIA reportedly launched a deception campaign to spread word inside Iran that US forces were moving the airman out of the country on the ground.

In his post, Trump also confirmed the “successful rescue of another brave Pilot, yesterday,” adding it was not disclosed to avoid jeopardising the second rescue mission.

“This is the first time in military memory that two U.S.[US] Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory,” he wrote, adding that both operations were concluded “without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded.”

AFP has contacted the White House and the Pentagon for comment.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says Iranian forces have managed to destroy several US warplanes that were conducting a mission to retrieve the pilot of a downed American fighter jet.

“Following desperate US moves to rescue the pilot of the downed fighter jet and the entry of flying objects to the country’s central parts, the enemy’s flying objects were destroyed and the US once again suffered a humiliating defeat during a joint operation (involving Aerospace, Ground forces as well as public, Basij and police units),” the IRGC’s Public relations Department said on Sunday.

The announcement came after US President Donald Trump claimed in a social media post that his country’s military “got” the pilot during an operation, one day after rescuing another pilot.

Enemy ‘failed’ to rescue pilot in Iran

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said that the enemy’s desperate efforts to rescue the pilot of the downed jet “failed” with the grace of God, divine providence, as well as the timing measures and the joint operation of the fighters of the IRGC, the Army, Basij and police.

He added that the enemy flying objects, including two Black Hawk helicopters and a C-130 transport plane, are burning in fire.

Additionally on Sunday, two intruding drones, including an MQ-9 and a Hermers-900, were destroyed in the skies over Isfahan Province by Iran’s air defense systems operating under the country’s integrated air defense network.

The criminal US-Israeli aggression on Iran began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders.

The Iranian armed forces have responded by launching almost daily missile and drone operations targeting locations in the Israeli occupied territories as well as US military bases and assets across the region.

They have also shot down several hostile fighter jets, missiles and drones, reflecting Iran’s readiness to defend its airspace.