US special forces launched a high-stakes raid into Iran on Sunday to rescue an injured airman left stranded in a remote mountainous region after his aircraft was shot down two days earlier.
Details have emerged about how the US raced against the clock and advancing Iranian operatives to find the officer deep inside hostile territory.
The airman’s ordeal began on Friday when an F-15E Strike Eagle jet was shot down over southwestern Iran – the first incident of its kind in more than 20 years.
The two US military personnel on board ejected and, while the pilot was rescued the same day, the second crew member – a weapons operator – became separated and remained stranded in a sparsely populated, rugged region.
Official confirmation soon followed swirling reports that a US airman was missing inside a war zone.
While US aircraft were seen flying low over the area on Saturday, Iran offered a bounty of £50,000 ($66,100) to anyone who found him alive, and videos shared on social media, which have not been verified by the BBC, appeared to show armed civilians searching.
Follow along for live updates
Analysis: Trump declares victory in Iran war after rescue, but threats to US operation still loom
The airman was armed with a handgun, US officials said, and would have received training for this situation, which involves intermittently turning on a beacon signal to help American forces locate him, getting to high ground, establishing communications and concealing himself.
The crew member hid in a mountain crevice and restricted the use of his beacon signal out of concern it could be picked up by Iran, Trump administration officials confirmed at a press conference on Monday.
A senior Trump administration official said the CIA was able to trace the airman’s exact location and informed the Pentagon, which would have also had to rule out the possibility the beacon signal was an Iranian trap.
President Donald Trump later said the airman’s location was monitored “24 hours a day” as he was “being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour”.
At Monday’s press conference, the president said the US soldier was severely injured, treated his own wounds, and – while bleeding profusely – scaled cliffs to transmit his location.
The CIA also reportedly ran a deception campaign inside Iran, falsely spreading word that US forces had already found him.
As US special forces aboard several aircraft made their way towards the stranded officer, strikes were reportedly launched to keep Iranian troops away from the area.
The New York Times reported that the airman communicated information on Iranian positions from his hiding place high on a 7,000ft ridge to aid with those strikes.
CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, reported that Navy SEALs – highly trained special operations troops – were then airdropped in to recover the airman.