According to the Wall Street Journal, the United States reportedly suffered losses exceeding $200 million following the destruction of two MC-130J military transport aircraft during a rescue mission for an American pilot in Iran. It should be noted that each aircraft is valued at over $100 million. The American pilot had been missing since Friday evening, following the downing of the F-15 fighter jet he was aboard in Iran, with US military forces racing against time for his timely location and rescue.
The rescue of the American pilot was mentioned in yet another interview by American President Donald Trump, providing more details of the operation. A Channel 12 and Axios journalist recounted a conversation with Trump, who told him that the Iranian military shot down the F-15 with its two-member crew using a shoulder-fired missile. “They were lucky,” the American president told Barak Ravid.
“We rescued the pilot (on Friday) quickly, in daylight,” Trump told Ravid, adding: “That’s something that’s not generally done. We’re better at nighttime operations. There was a lot of gunfire in the first rescue operation.”
Regarding the weapons systems officer case, Trump, as reported by Ravid on Channel 12, said that the rescued pilot gave a brief, unusual message over his radio after ejecting from the aircraft. “He said: ‘God is good.’ We suspected that perhaps the Iranians had captured him, because that sounded like something a Muslim would say.”
“We suspected the Iranians were sending us fake messages and that it was a trap. Eventually, we managed to confirm that it was indeed him. People who know him also said he’s a very religious person,” Trump continued.
Trump on the American pilot: “The US located him using technological means”
Trump also said that “thousands of these savages were hunting him,” using what Ravid described as a harsh term to refer to Iranian military members. “Even the population was searching for him. They offered people a bonus if they captured him.”
But the pilot managed to hide in a crevice on the mountainside. The US located him using technological means, Trump said.
“Other countries wouldn’t have risked 200 soldiers and 10 aircraft for one soldier. But we did,” Ravid quotes Trump as saying.
Trump added while speaking to the journalist that Israel helped “a little” in the rescue operation, but most of the assistance came from the US. The Israelis “were good partners. They were great and brave people. We’re like a big brother and a little brother,” Trump said.
Ravid cites anonymous American officials who say that Israel’s assistance was intelligence about the area where the rescue operation took place, not specifically about the pilot.
“The two crew members were separated by a distance of several miles,” the journalist reports, citing a US defense official. “Hundreds of IRGC soldiers were everywhere.”
Also, Israeli officials told him that the Israeli Air Force carried out a strike to prevent Iranian forces from reaching the area.
