Trump said that reports that mentioned that only one of the two pilots had initially been rescued threatened the attempt to rescue the other by tipping off the Iranians
By Courtney Subramanian and Hadriana Lowenkron
President Donald Trump threatened to jail journalists who published details of a daring US military raid to rescue two airmen whose aircraft was shot down over Iran, accusing them of jeopardizing the mission.
Trump on Monday called a press conference to reveal fresh details of what he called the “historic” effort, which salvaged what was one of the most perilous moments for the US in the month-long conflict. The comments, however, amounted to his latest bid to target the news media for its coverage of his administration.
Without naming specific outlets, Trump said that reports that mentioned that only one of the two pilots had initially been rescued threatened the attempt to rescue the other by tipping off the Iranians. Trump said the administration would search for the person who disclosed information to the news media and also detain journalists if they didn’t disclose the source of the leak.
“We have to find that leaker, because that’s a sick person,” Trump told reporters. “The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say. And I think everybody would understand they put this mission at great risk.”
Trump described in detail the search-and-rescue mission that occurred over the weekend, saying it involved 21 planes to rescue one pilot and some 155 aircraft to get the other. He said US military personnel conducted a complicated deception operation to rescue the second airman, who was stranded deep in Iranian territory.
At one point, Trump asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine if he could say how many US military personnel were involved in the mission. The general said he’d “love to keep that a secret,” but the president followed by saying “I’ll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds.”
“In a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force, America’s military descended on the area, the real area, engaged the enemy, rescued the stranded officer, destroyed all threats and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind,” Trump said. “The flight crews and war fighters aboard those aircraft took extraordinary risks to rescue their fellow service members.”
Trump said the mission’s success depended on “subterfuge,” involving aircraft flying over seven locations to deceive the Iranian forces about where the search was actually being conducted.
The president first shared details of the search-and-rescue effort in a pair of social media posts on Sunday, noting that the first pilot was rescued from the F-15E Strike Eagle crash in broad daylight during a seven-hour operation over Iran. Trump said the plane was downed by an Iranian “handheld shoulder missile” that was “heat seeking.”
The US and Iran then raced to find the airman, a weapons system officer who took refuge “in the treacherous mountains of Iran,” Trump said on Truth Social on Sunday. Trump said the airman was being “hunted down” by enemies who were “getting closer and closer by the hour.”
The weapons system officer evaded capture for almost 48 hours, Trump said. The president said the military blew up its some of its own aircraft instead of leaving them on the ground after they became stuck in the sand during the mission. Rather than allow the aircraft to sit intact, and risk the Iranians collecting specifications on them, the US decided to destroy them.
“We blew them up to smithereens because we had equipment on the planes that, frankly, we’d like to take, but I don’t think it was worthwhile spending another four hours there taking it off. So we didn’t want anybody that we have the best, best equipment anywhere in the world,” Trump said.
The airman was extracted by helicopter instead, according to Trump.
The mission followed the downing of a US military aircraft and spanned two days, involving hundreds of special operations troops, with US aircraft dropping bombs and firing on Iranian convoys to keep them away from the aviator’s hiding area, the New York Times previously reported.
The US also safely rescued a separate pilot of an A-10 Warthog that crashed near the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, around the same time as the F-15E fighter jet was shot down down, the Times said, citing US officials.
