The Iranian armed forces announced on Sunday that they had shot down three US military aircraft that were participating in the rescue operation for the pilot whose plane crashed on Friday.
President Donald Trump announced earlier on Sunday that U.S. forces had conducted “one of the most daring search and rescue operations in U.S. history, to assist one of our incredible crew members, a highly respected colonel. I am pleased to report that he is now safe and well.”
For its part, the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, the central operations room of the Iranian armed forces, said that “enemy aircraft that penetrated south of Isfahan, including two Black Hawk helicopters and a C-130 military transport plane, were hit and are now on fire,” adding that the American rescue operation “failed.”
State media broadcast images of charred wreckage scattered across a desert area, with smoke still rising from it.
For its part, Tasnim News Agency reported that the strikes carried out during the rescue operation resulted in the death of five people in southwestern Iran, without specifying whether they were civilians or military personnel.
In the same context, the New York Times reported on Sunday that the US military destroyed two of its transport planes that were stuck during a mission to rescue the missing pilot in Iran.
The newspaper published details of the nighttime operation, which it described as being among the “most complex” in the history of US special operations.
She said that US special operations forces carried out a rescue operation early Sunday morning for a pilot whose F-15 fighter jet was shot down inside Iran on Friday.
She added that the forces carried out a deep incursion into Iranian territory and the search operation continued for about 48 hours amid a race with Iranian forces to reach the pilot.
The newspaper explained that the operation faced complications after two transport planes broke down inside Iran, and replacement planes were sent and the two broken-down planes were destroyed.
She explained that the two aircraft were destroyed “out of fear that they would fall into the hands of the Iranians.”
The newspaper noted that the downing of an American F-15 fighter jet and the crash of another A-10 aircraft on Friday “raised questions about the extent of Iran’s defensive capabilities a month into the war.”
Iran announced that it had shot down a Hermes 900 drone over the city of Isfahan.
On Sunday, Iranian state television broadcast a statement from the Revolutionary Guard headquarters in Markazi province, which read: “A Hermes 900 drone spotted in the skies over Isfahan was destroyed.”
The statement indicated that the number of drones shot down by the Revolutionary Guard since the outbreak of the war on February 28 has exceeded 160.
