Iran war: U.S mission to rescue missing pilot of fighter jet was 'deception', 'foiled', claims Tehran

Iran on Sunday claimed that U.S rescue mission to missing pilot of the downed fighter jet was planned as a deception and it was foiled. This comes even as The United States said Sunday it rescued a service member missing behind enemy lines since Iran downed a fighter jet, as President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Tehran with a new looming deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The airman’s extraction followed a frantic U.S. search-and-rescue operation after the Friday crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle, as Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in an “enemy pilot.” Trump said he was injured but in stable condition.

Iran's military said on Sunday that the US operation to rescue a missing airman from a downed American fighter jet 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 military's central command, Khatam Al-Anbiya.

He added that "two C-130 military transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters were destroyed" during the operation.

The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.

On Sunday, Iran’s state TV aired a video showing thick black smoke rising into the air, claiming that they had shot down an American transport plane and two helicopters that were part of the rescue operation. However, a regional intelligence official briefed on the mission told The Associated Press that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes due to a technical malfunction, forcing it to bring in additional aircraft to complete the rescue.