Trump, addressing the Iranians: Open the damned strait or you will live in hell.
Trump, addressing the Iranians: Open the damned strait or you will live in hell.
2026-04-05 05:06
Shafaq News – Washington
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump revealed new details about the rescue operation of an F-15 fighter jet crew member inside Iran, confirming that the operation was carried out during the day and lasted seven hours deep in the Iranian mountains.
Trump said via Truth Social: “We rescued one of our F-15 crew members, a very brave and seriously wounded officer, from deep in the mountains of Iran,” adding that Iranian forces were “searching for him intensely and in large numbers and were close to reaching him.”
He explained that the rescue operation was carried out “in broad daylight,” which is unusual, after “spending seven hours over Iran,” describing the operation as “a stunning display of courage and competence,” and noting that a press conference with the military would be held in the Oval Office on Monday at 1:00 PM Washington time (8:00 PM Baghdad time).
In another post, he wrote that “Tuesday will be the day of power stations, the day of bridges, all in one day in Iran, and there will be nothing like it.”
He added: “Open the damned strait, or you will live in hell.”
Trump had described, in a statement early Sunday, the rescue of the second crew member as one of the “most” daring search and rescue operations in US history, stressing that the US military deployed dozens of aircraft equipped with advanced weapons to recover a colonel who was behind Iranian lines in rugged mountainous areas.
He added that the two pilots were rescued separately from deep within “enemy” territory, with the rescue of the first being deliberately not announced in order to protect the second operation, considering that the success of the two missions proves the achievement of American air superiority in Iranian airspace.
Reuters, for its part, quoted a US official as saying that US forces were forced to destroy at least one aircraft during the rescue operation after it suffered a malfunction, confirming that the operation, in which dozens of military aircraft participated, faced Iranian resistance.
Earlier, American media reports revealed details of a rescue operation carried out by special forces inside Iran to recover a weapons systems officer from the crew of an F-15E fighter jet that was shot down in the southwest of the country, after more than 24 hours of hiding in a mountainous area, amid air cover and intensive support operations.
shafaq.com
