Anonymousabout 2 hours ago
A U.S. Air Force colonel survived nearly 36 hours behind enemy lines in Iran's Zagros Mountains after his F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down on April 3, 2026, evading IRGC patrols and local bounty hunters before a massive joint CIA–special operations rescue extracted him. The operation — involving hundreds of special forces personnel, dozens of aircraft, and a CIA-run deception campaign that fed false intelligence to Iranian communication channels — succeeded where Operation Eagle Claw failed 46 years earlier, but raises unresolved questions about how Iran's air defenses penetrated U.S. airspace dominance, the legality of the broader war, and who bears responsibility for the mission that put the airman at risk.