US President Donald Trump has praised the 'really brave' American airman rescued from Iran on Sunday, two days after an F-15E fighter jet was shot down.
The colonel, who was seriously wounded, has been flown to Kuwait for medical treatment, where the US has a military base.
Trump described the rescue operation as an 'amazing show of bravery and talent by all' and claimed the Iranian forces were 'looking hard, in big numbers, and getting close'.
The rescue mission was conducted by US special forces using a specialized commando unit with a high volume of air cover, according to three US officials who spoke to Axios.
The colonel had ejected from the plane and landed in mountainous terrain in southwestern Iran, where he used standard SERE training to survive for nearly two days.
Before the Pentagon moved in, the CIA ran a parallel deception operation, spreading word inside Iran that US forces had already found him and were moving him on the ground for exfiltration.
The CIA used 'unique capabilities' to locate the colonel inside his mountain crevice, and his exact coordinates were then passed to the Pentagon and the White House.
