Rama Krishna Sangem
President Donald Trump who monitored the rescue operations of a lone airman stranded inside rocky interiors of Iran heaved a sigh of relief on April 4-5 as the job was done. But, the entire operations have incurred not less than two billion US dollars (Rs 19,000 crore) to him. Still, it is worth as this single rescue mission saved his image in the face of a long winding war he ordered five weeks back.
Had he failed, means, that stranded soldier landed in the hands of Iran, Trump would have faced biggest ignominy, in his entire six years long presidency. He would have recovered from that humiliation. Luck is on his side, for now.
Dozens of helicopters, jets and hundreds of seals were deployed in this rescue mission, involving multiple defence agencies and top officials over 48 years since the F-15 strayed in Iranian borders. The US military has rescued a missing crew member in a dramatic mission after his fighter jet was shot down in a remote part of Iran.
The exact circumstances remain unclear, but the operation to extract him from the ground in hostile territory was hugely complex. Dozens of special forces, as well as US warplanes and helicopters, were involved in the plan, along with the CIA, US media reported, says a BBC story on this mission.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said on social media: “We have rescued the seriously wounded, and really brave, F-15 Crew Member/Officer, from deep inside the mountains of Iran.” Even without this massive operation, the US would have saved the airman’s life, by negotiating with Iran over a period of time, but that would have eroded Trump’s image as an invincible warlord. Iran would have gained some bargaining power in the process of talks on his release.
But the airman’s ordeal began on Friday with reports that an F-15 jet, which was carrying a weapons systems officer and a pilot, had been shot down over southern Iran. The incident was the first in which a US fighter jet was shot down by enemy fire in more than 20 years. The two US military personnel on board the F-15E Strike Eagle managed to eject from the aircraft, and the pilot was rescued the same day, but the second crew member was missing.
The US then began a race against time to locate him. Iran made it clear they wished to capture him alive and offered a bounty of £50,000 ($66,100). Videos shared on social media, which have not been verified by the BBC, appeared to show armed civilians searching for him. Once the officer was on the ground, he had only a handgun to defend himself, US officials said.
The airman would have received training for a situation like this, and it would have involved turning his beacon signal on, getting to high ground, concealing himself and establishing communications.
According to reports in US media, the airman hid himself in a mountain crevice and restricted the use of his beacon – concerned the signal could be picked up by Iran. He then reportedly waited for his rescuers to arrive.
CIA played a key role
The CIA played a crucial role in the rescue operation, according to a senior Trump administration official who spoke to US media. It was the US intelligence agency that tracked the airman’s exact location to the mountain crevice and passed the information along to the Pentagon, said BBC.
Trump said his location was monitored “24 hours a day” by US officials who were planning the rescue operation. The officer was “being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” the president added.
The CIA also ran a deception campaign, according to reports, spreading word inside Iran that US forces had already found the second airman. The president said in his Truth Social post that the US military “sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him”.