By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - The rescue had unfolded with near‑perfect precision. Under cover of darkness, U.S. commandos slipped deep into Iran, undetected, scaled a 7,000‑foot ridge and pulled a stranded American weapons specialist to safety, moving him toward a secret rendezvous point before dawn on Sunday.
Then everything stopped.
Two MC-130 aircraft that had ferried some of the roughly 100 special operations forces into rugged terrain south of Tehran suffered a mechanical failure and could not take off, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Suddenly, elite commandos risked being stuck behind enemy lines.
Their commanders made a high-risk decision, ordering additional aircraft to fly into Iran to extract the group in waves — a decision that left the elite commandos waiting for a couple of tense hours.
"If there was a 'holy shit' moment, that was it," said the official, who credited quick decision-making with saving the day. The official, along with others who spoke to Reuters for this story, was granted anonymity in order to speak candidly about the operation.
The gamble worked. The rescue force was pulled out in stages, and U.S. troops destroyed the disabled MC‑130s and four additional helicopters inside Iran rather than risk leaving sensitive equipment behind.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The successful extraction ended one of the most perilous episodes of the five-week-old conflict, averting what could have been a catastrophic loss of American lives and easing a mounting crisis for President Donald Trump as he weighs whether to escalate a war that has already killed thousands.
DOWNED PILOT HID, MADE CONTACT
The rescued U.S. weapons specialist was the second of two crew members on an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet that Iran said on Friday had been hit by its air defenses. The U.S. official said the plane was flying over Isfahan province when it was brought down and the two airmen ejected separately. The pilot was rescued while the second airman remained in Iran.
U.S. air crews are trained in Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) techniques if downed behind enemy lines, but few are fluent in Persian and face a challenge in staying undetected while seeking rescue.
A U.S. source familiar with some of the operational details said the American officer, whom Trump said held the rank of colonel, sprained his ankle and hid in a crevice on a hilltop.
The official said the airman later established contact with the U.S. military and authenticated himself - a critical step to ensure rescue forces were not walking into a trap.
The CIA had run a deception campaign earlier, hoping to confuse Tehran by planting information inside Iran that U.S. forces had already located the missing airman and were moving him before the operation took place, a senior Trump administration official said.
But the U.S. military took additional steps, jamming electronics and bombing key roads around the location to prevent people from getting close, the U.S. source familiar with the planning said.
The source told Reuters that the aircraft eventually sent to extract the airman and rescue forces were much smaller turboprop aircraft, capable of landing on small airfields and relatively light.
Throughout the operation, the White House, the Pentagon and the U.S. military's Central Command were uncharacteristically silent. Trump was so relatively quiet that a local reporter went to check if he was at Walter Reed Hospital.
Once the mission was complete, Trump was triumphant.
"Over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History," Trump said in a statement, adding that the airman was injured, but "he will be just fine."
U.S. AIRCRAFT HIT
The initial search effort encountered fierce resistance from Iran when it began on Friday, after the F-15 pilot was initially rescued.
Reuters reported on Friday that two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search were hit by Iranian fire but escaped from Iranian airspace.
In a separate incident, a pilot ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft after it was hit over Kuwait and crashed, the officials said, though the extent of crew injuries was unclear.
The conflict has killed 13 U.S. military service members, with more than 300 wounded, the U.S. Central Command says. No U.S. troops have been taken prisoner by Iran.
While Trump has repeatedly sought to portray the Iranian military as being in tatters, its ability to repeatedly hit U.S. aircraft is significant, military experts say.
Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command said on Saturday the military used a new air defense system on Friday to target a U.S. fighter jet.
Reuters first reported on U.S. intelligence showing that Iran retains large amounts of missile and drone capability.
Until just over a week ago, the U.S. could only determine with certainty that it had destroyed about one-third of Iran's missile arsenal.
The status of about another third was less clear, but bombings probably damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers, Reuters sources said.
Appearing unburdened after the successful rescue, Trump used harsh language on Sunday to threaten Tehran if it did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz for oil flows vital to the world economy.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Don Durfee and Howard Goller)
