American and Iranian Forces in Race To Find Missing American Airman

American rescue teams were scouring a mountainous region of southwestern Iran on Saturday in an urgent race to find a missing American airman who, if captured by Iran, could become a high-profile hostage and potentially a bargaining chip in negotiations to end the war. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps is equally anxious to find the airman, unofficially identified as the weapon systems officer aboard an F-15E jet fighter that was shot down Friday over Iran’s Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province.Iranian state media say a reward has been offered to any citizen providing information leading to the capture of the missing flyer. A regional governor is reported by Reuters to have promised a commendation for anyone who captures or kills “forces of the hostile enemy.”Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has issued any public statement on the shootdown or the search, though officials have confirmed some details to American news outlets. They say the pilot of the F-15 was rescued Friday in a harrowing operation in which the rescue helicopter came under ground fire, injuring some aboard. Reuters says a second helicopter involved in the search was also hit but returned with no loss of life.Officials have also confirmed to news outlets that a second American aircraft, an A-10 Warthog, went down Friday near the Strait of Hormuz and that the pilot ejected and was rescued. The F-15E was the first American aircraft to be brought down by Iranian fire since the war began on February 28. Officials did not say whether the Warthog was shot down or crashed.A defense analyst, Jennifer Kavanagh, told the BBC that the missing airman, whose name has not been released, will be following established procedures to elude the Iranian searchers.“Their number one priority is to stay alive and to avoid capture,” said Ms. Kavanagh, a senior fellow and the director of military analysis at the think tank Defense Priorities. “And so they’re trained to — assuming that they’re physically capable and not so injured that they can’t move — try to get away from the ejection site as quickly as possible and to conceal themselves so that they are safe.”Ms. Kavanaugh said American airmen are also trained in survival techniques so they can go without food or water or find resources from the local terrain for as long as possible.A former Marine Corps Special Operations specialist, Jonathan Hackett, told the British network that the search crews would be “trying to work backwards from the last point they knew that person was and fan out based on the speed that person could move under different circumstances in this really difficult terrain.”A former U.S. Air Force Pararescue Jumpers commander told CBS News that if the airman is found in an area where he cannot be reached by helicopter, the rescuers will jump from a plane and try to reach him on foot. They would then provide any needed medical aid and try to get him to a rescue location while holding off any enemy forces.If the Iranians were to reach the flyer first and capture him alive, it could give them an important propaganda coup, prompting memories of the 1979-80 hostage crisis in which 52 Americans were held by Iran for 444 days.The director of the U.S. and North America program at Britain’s Chatham House, Laurel Rapp, told BBC that capturing the crew member would be a “huge prize” for Iran and would offer them a “very powerful bargaining chip” in any ceasefire negotiations.However, President Trump insisted in an interview Friday with NBC correspondent Garrett Haake that the incident would not affect the American negotiating position. “No, not at all. No, it’s war. We’re in war, Garrett,” the president said.Seeking to increase the pressure on Iran’s leadership, Mr. Trump posted a new warning on his Truth Social account Saturday, recalling his March 26 ultimatum in which he gave Iran “ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT.” His new post said: “Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign (sic) down on them.”Friday’s action brings to at least seven the number of American-manned aircraft lost since the start of the Iran war, including three F-15E fighters that were shot down by friendly fire over Kuwait on March 1. A KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft crashed after a midair collision on March 12, killing six on board, and an E-3D Sentry airborne early warning aircraft was destroyed on the ground in Saudi Arabia by an Iranian airstrike on March 27.The Pentagon reports 13 service members killed and 365 injured in the conflict to date.

American and Iranian Forces in Race To Find Missing American Airman

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