Shortly after midnight on Sunday, April 5, President Donald Trump posted two words on Truth Social that ended one of the most tense 48-hour stretches of the Iran war: "WE GOT HIM!" A US Air Force colonel, the weapons systems officer aboard the first American military aircraft shot down by Iranian fire since 2003, had been pulled safely from deep inside the mountains of Iran. He was seriously wounded. He had been hiding in a crevice at roughly 7,000 feet elevation, evading Iranian forces who were closing in by the hour. He was alive.
Trump's post confirmed what three US officials had just told Axios: US special forces had rescued the second crew member of the F-15E Strike Eagle that was shot down over southwestern Iran on Friday morning local time. It was the most consequential rescue operation the United States military had undertaken in at least two decades, and it unfolded under fire.
The Shootdown
The F-15E Strike Eagle was flying a combat mission over southwestern Iran on Friday, April 3, when it was shot down. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed its "new advanced air defence system" brought down the jet. US officials told the New York Times that both crew members were able to eject before the aircraft was destroyed. The pilot was recovered relatively quickly, within hours of the shootdown. The weapons systems officer, a colonel, was not.
It was the first confirmed loss of a US aircraft to enemy fire during the war that began on February 28, and the first such loss anywhere in over 20 years, the last being during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The same day, a second US aircraft, an A-10 Warthog operating near the Strait of Hormuz, also went down. According to Fox News, the A-10 had been providing covering fire during the initial rescue attempt for the downed F-15E crew. The A-10 pilot ejected into Kuwaiti airspace and was recovered. Iran claimed its air defenses downed the A-10 as well; US officials said only that it had crashed and did not confirm the cause.
Two HH-60 Jolly Green II combat search and rescue helicopters were also hit by Iranian fire during the first rescue attempt, according to reporting by The War Zone. Both aircraft sustained damage and injuries to crew members, but both were able to return to base.
Forty Hours in the Mountains
After ejecting, the colonel used his Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training to move away from the crash site and deeper into mountainous terrain in Iran's Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, an area of rugged southwest Iran roughly 100 miles inland from the coast. According to accounts given to Fox News by two US officials, he climbed a ridgeline rising to approximately 7,000 feet and concealed himself inside a rock crevice.
He activated an emergency beacon. That signal allowed US forces to establish his position and begin planning a second extraction attempt.
The situation on the ground was deteriorating rapidly. Iran's IRGC cordoned off portions of the province and called on the public to help find and capture any American aircrew. Footage from Iranian state media showed armed men carrying rifles and Iranian flags moving through mountain terrain. Tehran offered a 60,000 dollar reward for the airman, according to Al Jazeera. Nomadic tribes in the region joined the search. Iranian military units were closing in.
"They were getting closer and closer by the hour," Trump said in his Truth Social post confirming the rescue.
The Second Rescue: A CIA Deception and a Firefight
With the colonel located but Iranian forces tightening the cordon, the United States launched what Trump called "one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History."
According to Axios, which cited three US officials, the CIA launched a deliberate deception campaign inside Iran prior to the second extraction attempt. CIA operatives spread a false report within Iran suggesting that both F-15E crew members had already been located and that US forces were already working on their exfiltration. The goal was to cause Iranian authorities to redirect search assets and ease pressure on the colonel's actual position.
The operation itself was conducted by a specialized commando unit and supported by a massive air umbrella. Trump said in his post that the US military sent "dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World" to support the extraction. NPR reported that US officials confirmed at least three additional aircraft were hit during the operation: two helicopters struck by Iranian fire that were later destroyed by US forces after suffering malfunctions, and the A-10 that went down the prior day. Iran released video on Sunday claiming to show two American helicopters and a transport plane downed by its military during the operation; US officials told the Associated Press that the aircraft were destroyed by US forces after they became inoperable.
According to SOFREP, which reported on the tactical picture, US forces pushed to the ridgeline as Iranian elements converged from multiple directions. Air support struck approaching Iranian forces before they could mass on the colonel's position. Special operations troops reached the airman while he was still evading capture, moved him to an extraction point, and lifted out. According to NPR, which geolocated video footage to a bridge in Khuzestan province, the operation extended approximately 100 miles inland.
Trump noted that his operation came on top of the first rescue, which had not been publicly confirmed at the time because US officials did not want to jeopardize the second mission still underway.
Israel's Role
An Israeli military official, speaking anonymously to NPR because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said Israel assisted the United States with the rescue operation. According to that official, Israel halted its own strike operations in the relevant area during the recovery window and shared intelligence in real time with US forces conducting the extraction. NPR reported that airspace and targeting decisions were coordinated across coalition lines to protect the rescue mission.
It was an unusual degree of operational coordination between the two militaries during an active rescue, and reflects the extent to which the US and Israel have integrated their command and control structures over the course of the now 37-day war.
Trump's Response: Rescue as Leverage
The successful rescue appeared to shift Trump's posture on Sunday. In addition to the celebratory "WE GOT HIM" post, Trump escalated his language toward Tehran in a separate Truth Social post that used profanity and threatened direct strikes on Iranian civilian infrastructure. "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F****** Strait, you crazy b*******, or you'll be living in Hell," Trump wrote, according to NPR's reporting on the post.
Trump also told Fox News on Sunday that he believed there was "a good chance" of a deal with Iran before his Monday, April 6 deadline. "I think there is a good chance tomorrow, they are negotiating now," Trump said, according to CNN. Iran has publicly denied that any negotiations are underway and called Trump's threats "helpless and nervous," according to Al Jazeera. Iran's deputy for communications at the president's office, Seyyed Mehdi Tabatabaei, said the Strait would only be reopened following payment of war reparations through a "new legal regime" of transit fees.
Amin Saikal, a professor of Middle East and Central Asian studies at the Australian National University, told Al Jazeera that the rescue "also really frees up President Trump to pursue whatever strategy he has in mind," removing what could have been a significant constraint on US decision-making if an American colonel had been taken prisoner on Easter Sunday.
The Cost So Far
The two F-15E rescues were described by Trump as "the first time in military memory that two US Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory." But the cost of the broader war continues to climb. According to US-based rights group Human Rights Activists News Agency, 3,531 people have been killed in Iran since February 28, including at least 244 children. Thirteen US service members have also been killed in the conflict, according to Time's reporting. At least 26,500 people have been injured in Iran, according to Al Jazeera, citing figures as of the 37th day of the war.
The Iran war also escalated on Sunday against Gulf state infrastructure. Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy confirmed that Iranian drone attacks damaged two power and water desalination plants and caused fires at the Shuwaikh Oil Sector Complex. Fatima Abbas Johar Hayat, a spokesperson for the ministry, said the attacks caused "serious material damage" and the outage of two electricity-generating units. Kuwait Petroleum Corp reported additional losses from fires at several of its facilities. Bahrain's Gulf Petrochemical Industries Co and national oil company Bapco Energies were also struck by Iranian drones on Sunday. In Abu Dhabi, authorities said debris from the interception of an air attack caused fires at the Borouge petrochemical plant and suspended operations there. Saudi Arabia intercepted missiles early Sunday, according to Saudi authorities.
In Iran itself, the conflict entered a phase of intensified infrastructure targeting on both sides, with US and Israeli strikes hitting universities, bridges, hospitals, and power facilities. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Sunday that attacks on the perimeter of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, from which Russia evacuated an additional 200 staff members, exposed the entire region to the risk of radioactive contamination.
A War With No Agreed Endpoint
The F-15E rescue, whatever its tactical implications, did not move either side measurably closer to ending the war. Iran's public position remains that it will not negotiate under military pressure. The US has continued to add pressure while signaling interest in a deal. The April 6 deadline Trump set will pass on Monday, and what follows, whether a new round of strikes, a diplomatic opening, or an extension of the same ambiguous standoff, remains unclear.
What is clear is that the war entered its sixth week with both sides taking escalatory actions, an American colonel hiding in a mountain in Iran, two US jets shot down, and a rescue operation that Trump called historic now complete. The next 24 hours will determine whether Monday's deadline produces movement or another cycle of ultimatums.