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U.S. Special Forces Rescue Injured F-15E Crew Member from Iran Mountains

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U.S. special operations forces rescued the second crew member of a downed F‑15E Strike Eagle from rugged mountains in southern Iran early Sunday, ending a high‑stakes, two‑day search that unfolded deep inside hostile territory, U.S. officials said nytimes +1. Both airmen from the jet, which Iran said it shot down on Friday, were recovered alive; the rescued officer, a colonel, was injured but expected to survive nytimes +1.

The fighter was brought down amid an intensifying U.S.-Israel air campaign against Iran that began in late February, marking the first manned U.S. aircraft lost to enemy fire in the current conflict theguardian. The pilot was picked up within hours of ejecting; the weapons-systems officer (WSO) evaded capture for more than a day in mountainous terrain as U.S. and Iranian forces raced to find him washingtonpost +1.

How the Rescue Unfolded Deep Inside Iran

After the F‑15E was hit over southern Iran on Friday, both crew members ejected, landing in remote, rocky country where Iranian forces, local militias and civilians were quickly mobilized to search, with local reports of a roughly $60,000 bounty for the Americans axios +1. The pilot was located first. The WSO moved along a 7,000‑foot ridgeline and hid in a mountain crevice, using survival and evasion training to avoid capture for roughly 24–48 hours, according to officials and defense analysts aljazeera +1.

U.S. intelligence, including CIA assets inside Iran, eventually pinpointed his location and orchestrated a deception campaign to misdirect Iranian searchers, while “dozens” of U.S. aircraft – from drones to gunships and refuelers – supported a night‑time extraction by special operations forces, multiple accounts said nytimes +2. President Donald Trump hailed the mission as “one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History,” declaring on social media, “WE GOT HIM!” washingtonpost +1.

Escalation Risks and Competing Narratives

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said its air defenses shot down the F‑15E with a “new advanced air defense system,” releasing images of debris as proof and casting the incident as a major victory in its confrontation with the U.S. and Israel axios +1. Tehran also claimed that two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and a C‑130 transport were destroyed during the rescue attempt; U.S. officials acknowledged at least one aircraft was damaged and later destroyed by American forces after a malfunction but rejected Iran’s broader claims nytimes +1.

The rescue unfolded as U.S. aircraft faced heavy fire: an A‑10 supporting the search was hit and later crashed in or near Kuwaiti airspace, with that pilot rescued as well, underscoring the risks of combat search‑and‑rescue (CSAR) missions in a dense air‑defense environment nytimes +1. Military analysts said the downing of the F‑15E – a platform long seen as highly survivable – raised pointed questions about the strength of Iranian air defenses and the potential for further escalation in a war that has already killed thousands and disrupted global energy markets nytimes +1.

The Bigger Picture

The successful extraction spared Washington the crisis of an American airman paraded as a prisoner in Tehran, but it also highlighted how quickly the U.S.-Iran confrontation had moved into direct, high‑risk clashes over Iranian territory nytimes +1. As investigators probe how the F‑15E was downed and planners reassess the dangers of flying over Iran, both sides are likely to use the episode to bolster their narratives: Iran emphasizing its ability to hit advanced U.S. aircraft, and the U.S. pointing to its capacity to operate – and rescue its own – deep behind enemy lines nytimes +2.