How a dangerous US rescue mission in Iran almost went off course

By Phil Stewart, Idris Ali and Humera Pamuk

WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) – The rescue operation was carried out with near-perfect precision. Under cover of darkness, American commandos slipped deep into Iran, undetected, scaled a 7,000-foot ridge and pulled a stranded American weapons expert to safety, moving him to a secret rendezvous point before dawn Sunday.

Then everything stopped.

Two MC-130 planes that were transporting some of the roughly 100 special operations forces to the remote area south of Tehran suffered mechanical failure and were unable to take off, a US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Suddenly, the elite commandos risked being trapped behind enemy lines.

Their commanders made a high-risk decision, ordering more aircraft to be flown into Iran to flush out the group in waves – a decision that left the elite commandos waiting for a tense few hours.

“If there was ever a ‘holy crap’ moment, that was it,” said the official, who credited quick decision-making with saving the day. The official, along with others who spoke to Reuters for this story, were granted anonymity to speak publicly about the operation.

The gamble worked. The rescue force was withdrawn in stages, and US forces destroyed the disabled MC-130s and four additional helicopters inside Iran rather than leaving sensitive equipment behind.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The successful evacuation ended the deadliest episode of the five-week-old conflict, which could have caused a catastrophic loss of American life, and eased a growing crisis for President Donald Trump as he weighs whether to escalate a war that has already killed thousands.

Down pilot hid, contacted

The rescued U.S. weapons specialist was the second of two crew members aboard an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet that Iran said had hit its air defenses on Friday. The U.S. official said the plane was flying over Isfahan province when it was brought down and the two airmen ejected separately. The pilot was rescued while the second airman remained in Iran.

American airmen are trained in survival, evasion, resistance and escape (SERE) techniques if they fall behind enemy lines, but few know Persian and face the challenge of being undetected when seeking rescue.

A US source familiar with some of the operational details said the US officer, whom Trump promoted to the rank of colonel, sprained his knee and was hiding on a hilltop.

The official said the airman later established contact with the U.S. military and identified himself — a critical step to ensure rescue forces were not trapped.

The CIA had already conducted a deception campaign, hoping to confuse Tehran by planting information inside Iran that the US military had already found the missing airman and was moving him before the operation, a senior Trump administration official said.

But the U.S. military has taken extra steps, jamming electronics and bombing main roads around the location to prevent people from getting close, a U.S. source familiar with the plan said.

The source told Reuters that the plane eventually sent to evacuate the airmen and rescue forces was a very small turboprop plane, capable of landing on small airfields and relatively light.

The White House, the Pentagon and the US military’s Central Command were uncharacteristically silent during the operation. Trump was relatively calm until a local reporter went to Walter Reed Hospital to check on him.

Once the mission was accomplished, Trump was victorious.

“In the past few hours, the United States military pulled off one of the most daring search and rescue operations in American history,” Trump said in a statement, adding that the airman was injured, but “he will be fine.”

American aircraft hit

Initial search efforts were met with fierce resistance from Iran after the F-15 pilot was rescued on Friday.

Reuters reported on Friday that two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search were hit by Iranian fire but escaped Iranian airspace.

In a separate incident, an A-10 Warthog fighter jet ejected and crashed after a pilot hit it in Kuwait, officials said, although the extent of the crew’s injuries was unclear.

According to the US Central Command, 13 US service members were killed and more than 300 were injured in the conflict. Iran has not taken any US troops prisoner.

Trump has repeatedly tried to portray the Iranian military as a straggler, but the ability to repeatedly shoot down U.S. planes is significant, military experts say.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Joint Military Command said on Saturday that the military had used a new air defense system on Friday to target US warplanes.

Reuters reported for the first time that a US intelligence report showed Iran had a large missile and drone capability.

As of a week ago, the U.S. could only determine with certainty that it had destroyed about a third of Iran’s missile arsenal.

The status of about a third was less clear, but the bombing may have damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers, Reuters sources said.

Appearing innocent after the successful rescue, Trump used harsh language on Sunday to threaten that Tehran would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil flows vital to the global economy.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idris Ali, Humera Pamuk; Editing by Don Durfee and Howard Goller)