Tonight, new details about that daring and dangerous rescue of an American aviator shot down over Iran. This as President Trump escalated his threats and taunts to leaders of the Islamic Republic. In a profanity-laced post today, Trump demanded Iran, “open the expletive strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in hell.” Trump ended the post, “Praise be Allah.” Iran tonight defiant and firing missiles. Missiles hit several targets in the Gulf region as well as the residential building in Haifa, Israel. CBS’s Charlie D’Agata leads us off with new reporting on that daring rescue.
Good evening, Jericka. US officials and White House sources tell CBS News this was a complex operation involving dozens of US commandos and several dozen warplanes and helicopters in the search and eventual rescue of the F-15 crew member.
Video this morning purports to show the smoldering wreckage of two US C-130 transport planes that were involved in the rescue mission on a remote base in Iran. Sources tell US forces blew them up in order to avoid them falling into enemy hands — standard US military practice. Attack helicopters and aircraft kept Iranian forces from getting anywhere near where the crewman was hiding.
Armed Iranians had been scouring the mountainous terrain to find him first, with the promise of a huge cash reward. But a Trump administration official tells CBS News the CIA was deeply involved, not only in the hunt, but in a ploy to spread false information inside Iran that US forces had already found him and were transporting him by ground out of the country.
The race to find the two-man F-15 began on Friday. The pilot was rescued within hours of the fighter jet being brought down. He sustained some injuries. We have learned the second crewman is seriously wounded, according to President Trump.
The downing of the jet came amid a fierce US bombing campaign in Iran, including blowing up Iran’s biggest bridge linking Tehran to key cities. Iran says more than a dozen people were killed.
And Iran has continued to retaliate, striking an oil refinery in Iraq, launching strikes across the Gulf from Bahrain to Kuwait, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and more missile barrages in Israel. Today President Trump set a deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday.
He said there will be a press conference tomorrow afternoon from the Oval Office with military officials, when they will share more details of the rescue operations. Charlie D’Agata from London, thank you.
