Missing US crew member rescued in 'daring' operation in Iran

[Twiglets1]

A missing U.S. service member who was shot down in Iran has been rescued following a risky mission deep behind enemy lines in mountainous terrain, Donald Trump has announced.

“WE GOT HIM!” the president posted on Truth Social shortly after midnight on Saturday. “My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History.”

Iranian authorities had offered a bounty to anyone who handed over the missing airman alive, a state television anchor announced previously. White House officials had remained largely silent on the search.

Trump said that the unnamed airman had sustained injuries during the crash but “will be just fine.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-iran-pilot-rescue-b2952011.html

"What happened in Kahrizak?
Evidence from verified videos and eyewitness accounts reveal that security forces carried out mass unlawful killings across Tehran province.

On 10 January, distressing footage began to emerge of a makeshift morgue set up in an outbuilding of the Legal Medicine Organization (a state forensic institute) in Kahrizak, a city near Tehran, after the facility’s morgue started to overflow. Videos showed distraught families seeking to identify their loved ones among the body bags. Amnesty International analysis of this evidence identified at least 205 distinct body bags at the site.

The next day, new video footage as uncovered, showing a screen inside the facility displaying photos of the deceased, with a changing numerical counter. In the video the counter reaches 250."

"How many people have been killed by security forces?

On 17 January, in a public speech, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, said “thousands of people” were killed. Since then, on 21January, Iran’s Supreme Council of National Security issued a statement that 3,117 people were killed during the uprising. However, on 16 January 2026, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, said in a media interview that at least 5,000 people had been killed, noting that according to information she received from medical sources, the death toll might be as high as 20,000 . Due to the ongoing internet shutdown, the scale of mass killings that took place and Iranian authorities’ well-documented pattern of carrying out reprisals against families of victims who speak out, the true number of those killed is likely higher.

The ongoing internet shutdown prevents people in Iran from communicating with the outside world. This makes gathering and verifying information difficult. Verified videos and eyewitness accounts Amnesty International has been able to obtain and review, reveal security forces carrying out mass unlawful killings on an unprecedented scale amid the shutdown.

In the aftermath of the massacres on 8 to9 January, medical facilities were overwhelmed with injured protesters, while distraught families gathered at hospitals and overflowing morgues, searching for their missing loved ones."