&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "US airman rescue was 'cover to steal enriched uranium', claims Iran. Here's what we know")
United States President on Sunday (April 5) rescued the American service member who was missing behind enemy lines since Iran downed a fighter jet. Trump took to truth Social to write, "We have rescued the seriously wounded, and really brave, F-15 Crew Member/Officer, from deep inside the mountains of Iran."
But the Iranian foreign ministry on Monday (April 6) had completely a different story to say. It claimed that the operation to rescue the downed airman may have been a cover to "steal enriched uranium" from the country, reported news agency AFP.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei raised questions about the US operation saying, “The area where the American pilot was claimed to be present in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province is a long way from the area where they attempted to land or wanted to land their forces in central Iran.”
"The possibility that this was a deception operation to steal enriched uranium should not be ignored at all," Baqaei said further.
He also called the US operation to rescue the pilot "a disaster" for the United States.
How the rescue happened?
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The F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet was shot down over southern Iran on Friday (Apr 3), the first such incident since the start of the war. While the first pilot was rescued by the US forces earlier, the second had remained missing behind the enemy lines as American and Iranian forces raced to locate him.
Hundreds of special forces troops and dozens of US warplanes, helicopters, and cyber, space and other intelligence capabilities were employed to save the crew member, reported New York Times. The US forces had a firefight with Iranian convoys. Two transport planes that were to carry the commandos and the airmen to safety got stuck at a remote base in Iran, following which they decided to fly three new planes to extract all the US military personnel and the airmen. They blew up the two disabled planes to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands.
