Daring rescue of U.S. airman

A high-stakes search and rescue operation concluded with the safe recovery of a U.S. weapons officer from hostile territory in Iran.

The airman survived for 48 hours in a remote mountain crevice while Iranian militias and military units conducted an intensive search.

The extraction was complicated by technical malfunctions that forced the U.S. to destroy two of its own transport aircraft on the ground.

President Trump has hailed the operation as one of the most daring in American military history.