8 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday<\/a> \u2014 telling one reporter that \u201cvery little\u201d would be off the table if Tehran doesn\u2019t capitulate.<\/p>\n\u201cIf it happens, it happens,\u201d he told ABC News. \u201cAnd if it doesn\u2019t, we\u2019re blowing up the whole country.\u201d<\/p>\n
A mountain rescue<\/p>\n
A senior administration official told The Times that Saturday\u2019s mission began with a deception campaign launched by the CIA to throw off Iran\u2019s military. <\/p>\n
The intelligence agency intentionally leaked plans to transport a valuable package out of the country \u2014 first by ground convoy to Iran\u2019s southern coast, then by sea into international waters \u2014 in order to draw Iranian forces away from the officer\u2019s true location in the crevice of a mountain, the official said.<\/p>\n
The CIA shared details of the officer\u2019s locator beacon with the White House and the Defense Department, and monitored his movements in real time as he navigated a ridge at an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, awaiting rescue. U.S. forces struck targets in the area to keep Iranian forces at bay before deploying assets for the extraction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Iranians were confused and uncertain of what was happening,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n
The officer sustained injuries while evading Iranian forces, Trump acknowledged on social media, adding that \u201che will be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear whether other service members involved in the rescue mission sustained injuries, or whether the U.S. military suffered any other potential setbacks.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s military claimed credit for downing additional U.S. aircraft as the operation unfolded, including two Black Hawk helicopters and two C-130 military transport planes. \u201cThe U.S. Army\u2019s so-called rescue operation,\u201d said Iranian military command spokesman Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaqari, \u201cwas brought to a complete failure by the [timely] presence of the Iranian armed forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. officials said they blew up the aircraft themselves after landing in Iran to offload equipment and personnel for the mission.<\/p>\n
The loss of additional American aircraft was seen by some in Iran as evidence that the U.S. mission was not a complete success.<\/p>\n
But the ability of the U.S. military to land and operate so deeply inside the country \u2014 just south of Isfahan, a major city and home to Iran\u2019s largest atomic science facility \u2014 raised concerns among others that U.S. forces could begin conducting additional ground operations anywhere in the country and at any time of their choosing.<\/p>\n
The weapons systems officer ejected from an F-15 fighter jet downed by enemy fire Friday alongside the pilot, who landed at a separate location and was rescued within hours of the attack, U.S. officials said. <\/p>\n
An A-10 Thunderbolt II also fell that day, under conditions disputed by the two sides. The U.S. military has not commented on the status of that aircraft or its crew, but a U.S. official told The Times that its lone crew member had been successfully rescued, and that all aviators involved in Friday\u2019s events are now \u201csafe and accounted for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran responds<\/p>\n
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran\u2019s pugnacious parliament speaker, continued his now-daily trolling of the Trump administration, posting a picture depicting the smoking wreckage of what appeared to be two planes and two helicopters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the United States gets three more victories like this, it will be utterly ruined,\u201d Qalibaf wrote. He concluded with a clapping emoji.<\/p>\n
He later responded to Trump\u2019s threats to target energy infrastructure with another tweet on X, saying his \u201creckless moves are dragging the United States into a living HELL for every single family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump had initially given Tehran a 10-day deadline to negotiate a ceasefire, demanding an end to Iranian attacks in the strait and a complete end to its nuclear program.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur whole region is going to burn because you insist on following [Benjamin] Netanyahu\u2019s commands,\u201d Ghalibaf said, referring to Israel\u2019s prime minister. \u201cMake no mistake,\u201d he added, \u201cyou won\u2019t gain anything through war crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilner reported from Washington and Bulos from Beirut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0An audacious operation Saturday night deep inside Iran rescued an American officer whose fighter jet had gone down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[112363,19378,106767,340,48,52,51,47,50,49,112362,112359,112360,7648,112361,96358,86,1519,112358,112364,2664],"class_list":{"0":"post-253306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-foreign-ministry","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-iranian-official","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-news","18":"tag-oman","19":"tag-petrochemical-plant","20":"tag-regional-oil","21":"tag-rescue","22":"tag-retaliatory-attack","23":"tag-strait","24":"tag-strike","25":"tag-trump","26":"tag-u-s-account","27":"tag-u-s-aviator","28":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}