In one of the most audacious special operations missions in recent American military history, SEAL Team 6 extracted a seriously injured Air Force weapons officer from deep inside Iran early Sunday after a two-day manhunt, a CIA diversion operation, a firefight with local militias, and the deliberate destruction of two $100 million aircraft that became stranded on a hastily constructed airstrip on hostile soil.

The unnamed Air Force colonel, whose F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down last week, survived by climbing a 7,000-foot mountain ridge while evading Iranian forces hunting him for a $60,000 bounty, as American MQ-9 Reaper drones pounded militia units whenever they closed in on his position, according to a report by the New York Times.

“He evaded up a 7k ridge. They’ve been schwackin’ dudes chasing him all day. Was nuts,” a source told veteran war correspondent Toby Harnden.

The rescue operation, centered near the city of Isfahan some 200 miles inside Iranian territory, required multiple transport aircraft — believed to be MC-130J Commando IIs — to land on an improvised airstrip. Two of the aircraft became stuck in the sand at the improvised strip. Rather than risk the sophisticated, classified aircraft falling into Iranian hands, commanders made the call to destroy them in place.

Three additional aircraft were dispatched to extract the American forces stranded alongside the destroyed planes. All commandos and the rescued airman returned safely. There were no American deaths among the rescue team, a senior U.S. military official confirmed.

While the ground operation unfolded, the CIA executed a separate diversion designed to throw Iranian search teams off the airman’s trail. Agency operatives planted false intelligence suggesting the officer had already been recovered and was being driven out of Iran by road — buying the rescue team critical time as Iranian militias, armed civilians, and security forces scrambled to find him.

The injured airman has since been flown to Kuwait for medical treatment.

The rescue caps a harrowing 48-hour ordeal that began when the weapons officer ejected from his stricken F-15E over Iran. The plane’s pilot was rescued in a separate operation Friday, prompting President Trump to post “WE GOT HIM!” on Truth Social. “This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Trump wrote.

In a subsequent post, Trump acknowledged the stakes of what his forces had attempted. “This type of raid is seldom attempted because of the danger to ‘man and equipment,'” he wrote.

The president announced he would hold a news conference with military officials at the Oval Office Monday at 1:00 p.m. to address the successful operation.

The mission stands as a remarkable operational achievement — and a costly one. The two destroyed MC-130Js represent a combined loss of approximately $200 million in hardware. But American commanders got what they came for: every man came home.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)