...
By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Calls are growing online for a Hollywood rendering of the weekend's dramatic rescue of a second U.S. airman from Iran, who was stranded in a remote mountain range for more than a day after his F-15E fighter jet crashed on Friday.
President Donald Trump said "dozens" of U.S. aircraft were involved in pulling the injured U.S. colonel, from Iran in an overnight mission late Saturday. The F-15E's pilot had already been rescued.
The president hailed the "daring" operation as a major military success and said no U.S. personnel were wounded or killed, even as Iranian forces scouring the area closed in.
Read More on World
"This is absolutely going to be a movie one day soon and the screenwriter better not miss the fact that he was lost on Good Friday in local time zone and rescued on Easter before sunrise," conservative commentator Robby Starbuck wrote.
...
"Move over Rambo, this will make a better movie, and it's all real," added former Fox host Geraldo Rivera.
"Hollywood would reject this as farfetched," another X user posted.
Iran's embassy in South Africa said on Sunday the U.S. was winning the war, now in its sixth week, "only in Hollywood."
Details of Rescue Operation Emerge
CIA operatives alerted Pentagon officials and the White House that they had located the lost airman—a weapons systems officer—and Trump immediately greenlit a rescue mission, an unnamed senior administration official told NBC News.
The spy agency fed the Pentagon information in real time after launching a deception campaign to confuse Iranian authorities before the operation got underway, several outlets reported. The U.S. Air Force colonel is said to have been hiding in a crevice to avoid detection, clutching a pistol, a tracking device and a way to communicate with U.S. forces.
Iranian officials insisted four U.S. aircraft had been destroyed during the operation, identified in state media as two Black Hawk helicopters and two transport aircraft.
U.S. warplanes reportedly struck the area around the weapons officer's location, making sure Iran couldn't reach the vulnerable airman before American commandos secured him.
News agencies affiliated with authorities in Tehran then posted images purporting to show the charred, smoking remains of these aircraft.
Newsweek has been unable to independently verify when or where these photos were taken, but some analysis indicates the landscape in the background captures an area little over 30 miles southeast of the central Iranian city of Isfahan.
Multiple media outlets, citing anonymous sources, reported the U.S. military had been forced to blow up two of its own MC-130J planes that were supposed to whisk the commandos and the rescued aviator from the mountains.
Strikes continued across the Middle East on Monday, with Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia reporting Iranian aerial assaults into the early hours. At least two people were killed in an Iranian attack on the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
At least 25 people were killed in Iran on Monday, including 13 on the outskirts of the capital, Tehran, according to state media. Images and footage shared online purported to show destruction at the Sharif University of Technology in the city.
Israel said the intelligence chief for Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Majid Khademi, had been killed. Iranian state media confirmed his death on Monday and Israeli officials later said another Iranian commander had also died.
Iranian media blamed new reported attacks on Iran's vast South Pars gas field, the world's largest natural gas reserve that Tehran shares with Qatar, on the U.S. and Israel.
An earlier Israeli attack on South Pars prompted Trump to promise Israel would not strike the gas field again, while also warning the U.S. would "massively blow up the entirety" of South Pars if Tehran continues attacking Qatari energy sites.
The renewed strikes come as Trump warned in an expletive-littered social media post that American troops could target bridges and power plants in Iran if Tehran's leadership did not allow vessels to pass unscathed through the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway that Iran has effectively blocked for more than a month.
Trump appeared to give Tehran a deadline of 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, but had earlier indicated his ultimatum would expire on Monday. Iran's military said attacks on civilian targets would trigger "much more devastating and extensive" retaliatory strikes.
The president also hinted a deal to end the war could be on the table as soon as Monday, while Iran's foreign ministry said negotiations were "incompatible with ultimatums and threats to commit war crimes" and that it would announce its response to proposals in "due time."
Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish teams have sent the U.S. and Iran a proposal detailing a 45-day ceasefire and how the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened, The Associated Press reported on Sunday, citing two unnamed Middle Eastern officials.
Update 4/6/2026 at 9:19 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines