President Trump and top national security officials shed new light on the daring rescues of two American airmen who were shot down over Iran last week, detailing the intense effort that extracted both men from enemy soil.
Speaking at a news conference at the White House, Mr. Trump also said that he believes the Iranians are negotiating “in good faith” amid a renewed diplomatic push to strike a deal that would stop the fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The president has given the Iranians until 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday to reach an agreement on opening the strait before targeting power plants and infrastructure.
Mr. Trump said the effort to locate the downed airmen was “one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing combat searches — I guess you would call it a search and rescue mission — ever attempted by the military.”
The American F-15E fighter jet was shot down by Iranian fire on Friday. The plane’s pilot was located and rescued that same day, but the second crew member, a weapon systems officer, remained missing in Iran’s mountainous terrain. The president announced early Sunday morning that the weapon systems officer had also been rescued.
The operation involved more than 150 planes and more than 200 munitions, CBS News reported earlier Monday. The stranded officer had only a handgun to defend himself.
Joined at the White House by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Mr. Trump said he “ordered the U.S. armed forces to do whatever was necessary to bring our brave warriors back home” soon after the jet was shot down. He revealed that the F-15 was brought down by a “handheld shoulder missile, [a] heat-seeking missile.”