TEHRAN: Iran’s military said on Sunday that the US operation to rescue a missing airman from a downed American fighter jet used an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan province.
“The so-called US military rescue operation, planned as a deception and escape mission at an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan under the pretext of recovering the pilot of a downed aircraft, was completely foiled,” said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the military’s central command, Khatam Al-Anbiya.
He added that “two C-130 military transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters were destroyed” during the operation.
“During a joint operation (Aerospace, Ground Force, Popular Units, Basij and Police command), enemy flying objects were destroyed,” the Revolutionary Guards said after Iran’s police command announced an American C-130 aircraft had been downed in the south of Isfahan.
“An American enemy aircraft that was searching for the pilot of a downed fighter jet was destroyed by the fighters of Islam in the southern region of Isfahan,” the Tasnim news agency quoted the Guards as saying.
US President Donald Trump said early Sunday the second crew member from the American fighter jet that crashed inside Iran was “SAFE and SOUND” following a search and rescue operation.
Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s army also said they had downed an Israeli drone in the same province.
US-Israeli strikes kill five Guards members in northwest Iran
US-Israeli strikes killed five fighters with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the country’s northwest on Sunday, state media said.
“Following the brutal attacks of the American-Israeli enemy on the Moghan Plain … five IRGC fighters have attained martyrdom,” said Iran’s official IRNA news agency, citing a statement by the Guards in the northwestern Ardabil province.
