标签： North America

As a self-imposed 48-hour deadline for a negotiated peace with Iran ticks down, former U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a stark warning that “all hell will break loose” across the country if no agreement is reached, with the broader 10-day ultimatum for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz also approaching.

The escalating threat landed amid a sharp surge in cross-border strikes across the Middle East over the Easter weekend, which left critical energy infrastructure in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and civilian sites across Iran — including universities, research facilities and areas near nuclear infrastructure — heavily damaged.

On Friday, warplanes targeted and destroyed a research facility affiliated with Shahid Beheshti University, one of Iran’s most prestigious higher education institutions, located in northern Tehran. The strike on the university’s Laser and Plasma Research Institute marks the latest in a growing pattern of civilian site targeting by U.S. and Israeli forces in their ongoing military campaign against Iran, which launched on February 28.

During an on-site press briefing Saturday, Iranian Minister of Science, Research and Technology Hossein Simaei Saraf confirmed that at least 30 Iranian universities have sustained damage from U.S. and Israeli strikes since the conflict began.

In Sunday’s most high-profile development, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that U.S. military forces had completed what he called “one of the most daring search and rescue operations in U.S. history,” recovering a “highly respected colonel” whose plane was downed over Iranian territory. The colonel was the second of two crew members aboard an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet shot down Friday; the first service member was extracted earlier.

Iranian military officials pushed back sharply on the U.S. rescue claim hours later. A spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters announced that Iranian forces intercepted and destroyed multiple U.S. aircraft attempting to infiltrate southern Isfahan province to extract the downed aircrew, fully foiling the operation. According to the spokesperson, the destroyed aircraft included two Black Hawk helicopters and two C-130 military transport planes, all of which were left burning after the strike.

Al Jazeera reported Sunday that multiple civilian fatalities occurred during search operations for the downed F-15E crew in Iran’s southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province. Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency confirmed the casualties: five people killed and eight wounded in an attack on the Koh Siah area of Kohgiluyeh County, with an additional four fatalities recorded in the Vazg and Kakan districts of Boyer-Ahmad County.

The previous day, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed one person was killed by projectile fragments after a U.S.-Israeli strike hit a site near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, the fourth strike near the facility to date.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also released a statement confirming it had conducted airstrikes on more than 120 targets across central and western Iran over the weekend, with planned targets including ballistic missile stockpiles, drone production facilities and Iranian air defense installations.

Global and regional officials have raised urgent alarms over the growing humanitarian and nuclear risks of the escalating conflict. On April 4, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took to X to warn that radioactive fallout from a strike on Bushehr would devastate capital cities across the GCC, not just Tehran. He also accused U.S. media of misrepresenting Iran’s negotiating position, reiterating that Iran’s core demand is a permanent end to what he called the “illegal war” imposed on the country.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joined the IAEA in sounding the alarm on Sunday over nuclear facility safety in Iran. “The latest incident involving the Bushehr nuclear power plant is a stark reminder: a strike could trigger a nuclear accident, with health impacts that would devastate generations,” he wrote on X. “With every passing day of this escalating conflict, the stakes and threats are raised higher and higher. We must de-escalate now. Peace is the best medicine.”

Former IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei also issued a public appeal, urging GCC member states and the United Nations to intervene to stop Trump from turning the entire region into an inferno.

After more than a month of open conflict between the U.S.-Israeli bloc and Iran, regional tensions have spiraled to new heights in recent days, fueled by a fiery public ultimatum from U.S. President Donald Trump and a wave of reciprocal cross-border strikes that have put global energy security at grave risk.

The latest escalation follows the downing of an American F-15 fighter jet over southwestern Iran on Friday. Both the pilot and a second crew member ejected safely after the crash, and the pilot was rescued within hours. After a multi-day search carried out by both U.S. and Iranian teams in the mountainous crash site, the White House announced Sunday that the second service member had also been successfully extracted from hostile Iranian territory.

Hours after confirming the rescue, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to issue a profanity-laced threat against Tehran, tying his demand to a rapidly approaching deadline. Iran has blocked all commercial shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil exports, for more than a month. The closure has sent crude prices soaring worldwide and stoked widespread fears of a sustained global inflation surge. Trump first issued a series of deadlines for Iran to reopen the waterway back in March, and Sunday’s post reaffirmed that demand with unprecedented harsh language.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the post read. Later, Trump clarified an adjustment to the timeline, posting “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!” – an extension from the original Monday, April 6 deadline. In subsequent interviews with U.S. media outlets, the president struck a contradictory tone: he repeated his earlier threat to unleash “hell” on Iran if the deadline is not met, but added that he believes there is a “good chance” a negotiated deal can be reached with Tehran before the clock runs out. He also acknowledged he is considering a more extreme option: “blowing everything up and taking over the oil” if no agreement is secured quickly.

Iranian officials have responded with open mockery and defiance of Trump’s ultimatum. Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, a senior commander with Iran’s central military command, dismissed the threat as a “helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action,” warning that “the gates of hell will open” for the U.S. president if Washington follows through on the attack.

Parallel to the diplomatic standoff, both sides have ramped up military strikes across the region in recent days. Israel has carried out a wave of attacks on civilian infrastructure targets across Iran in recent days, with a petrochemical facility hit Saturday marking the latest in that campaign. According to senior Israeli defense officials, Jerusalem is currently awaiting final approval from Washington to launch expanded strikes on Iranian energy facilities as early as next week. On Sunday, joint U.S.-Israeli strikes hit the Qasem Soleimani International Airport in southwestern Iran, a key logistical hub for Iranian military operations.

Iran has continued its reciprocal retaliatory strikes targeting Israel and U.S. Arab allies across the Persian Gulf. On Sunday, an Iranian ballistic missile scored a direct hit on a residential building in the Israeli coastal city of Haifa, leaving four people injured. Further north in the Gulf, Abu Dhabi emergency responders spent Sunday battling large fires at the Borouge petrochemical complex, sparked by debris from an intercepted Iranian missile. Kuwaiti officials reported severe damage to key oil and petrochemical facilities from Iranian drone strikes, while industrial and fuel infrastructure in Bahrain was also targeted in separate attacks.

In a high-stakes operation that has been hailed as one of the most audacious rescue missions in modern U.S. military history, a second American airman missing after a U.S. F-15 fighter jet was shot down over Iran has been successfully recovered by U.S. forces.

The incident unfolded Friday after the jet crashed, forcing both the pilot and the on-board weapons systems officer to eject from the aircraft. The pilot was pulled from the area swiftly following the crash, but the second crew member remained unaccounted for, triggering parallel search efforts by both U.S. and Iranian forces in the rugged, mountainous terrain of southwestern Iran.

For U.S. military and intelligence leaders, the hours-long search carried enormous strategic risk: if Iranian forces had captured the airman first, he would almost certainly have become a high-value propaganda tool, and potentially held as a prisoner of war to use in negotiations with the U.S. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a large-scale manhunt for the missing service member, deploying ground troops and enlisting local civilians, with a reported reward of roughly $66,000 offered for anyone who helped capture him alive. Social media footage circulating in the hours after the crash appeared to show hundreds of Iranians heading into the mountains to join the search.

Details of the successful rescue first broke in U.S. media outlets late Saturday, and just minutes later, former U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed the mission’s outcome in a post on Truth Social, writing simply, “WE GOT HIM!” Trump added that the rescued airman, a respected colonel, had sustained injuries during the incident but was expected to make a full recovery, praising the operation as one of the most daring search and rescue efforts in U.S. history.

Multiple U.S. officials have shed new light on the complex operation, revealing that the weapons officer spent more than 24 hours evading capture alone in the mountains, armed only with a handgun. The CIA played a pivotal role in the mission, according to a senior U.S. official: intelligence operatives tracked the colonel to a remote mountain crevice, transmitted his exact coordinates to the Pentagon, and ran a sophisticated deception campaign across Iran to distract Iranian forces. During the rescue, the agency spread false information that the airman had already been captured and removed from the country, drawing Iranian search teams away from the actual extraction site.

Trump later confirmed that dozens of U.S. aircraft were deployed for the mission. One aircraft, an A-10 Warthog attack jet, sustained damage while operating over the Gulf, forcing its pilot to eject before being recovered safely by U.S. forces. The White House intentionally withheld public updates after the pilot’s initial recovery on Friday to protect the secrecy of the ongoing rescue operation, a decision that military sources say contributed to its success. The BBC has also confirmed that the first pilot may have suffered injuries during his ejection from the F-15.

Iran’s semi-official IRGC-affiliated news agency Tasnim reported that five Iranian civilians and service members were killed during the U.S. rescue operation, a claim that has not yet been independently verified by U.S. officials.

The successful recovery comes amid a sharp escalation of military conflict across the Middle East. On Sunday morning, Abu Dhabi authorities confirmed they were working to contain large fires at the Borouge petrochemical facility, sparked by falling debris from an Iranian missile strike. Kuwait reported that Iranian drone strikes caused extensive damage to the country’s oil and petrochemical infrastructure, and industrial sites in Bahrain were also targeted. Later the same day, Israeli media reported that a ballistic missile scored a direct hit on a residential building in Haifa, leaving at least four people injured.

Despite the escalating violence, Trump told Fox News in an interview Sunday that he believes there is a “good chance” of reaching a negotiated deal with Iran by Monday, one day ahead of a U.S.-imposed deadline for Tehran to reopen the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz. The interview came after Trump posted an expletive-laden threat on social media, repeating promises to bomb Iranian power plants and key bridges if the deadline is not met.

In a high-stakes operation that U.S. officials are calling one of the most audacious combat search and rescue missions in modern American military history, U.S. forces have successfully recovered the second missing crew member from a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle shot down by Iranian air defenses over southern Iran late last week.

Former President Donald Trump confirmed the successful extraction in a series of social media posts Sunday morning, announcing the downed air officer was “now SAFE and SOUND!” before later clarifying the service member had sustained serious injuries during the incident. The two-person F-15 crew both ejected after the jet was downed, and the first crew member was recovered by U.S. forces in an earlier, separate extraction attempt.

Details of the cross-border operation remain tightly held, but emerging accounts from U.S. officials and major media partners paint a picture of a frantic race against time between U.S. and Iranian forces to locate the missing airman after the crash. A source familiar with the mission described it as a massive, high-risk combat search and rescue (CSAR) operation launched deep into Iranian sovereign territory.

According to CBS News, the U.S. media partner of the BBC, Trump halted multiple pre-planned U.S. operations across Iran to reallocate resources to the rescue, deploying dozens of elite special operations personnel to execute the mission. The president emphasized the extraordinary danger of the operation in his social media remarks, noting that such high-risk raids inside enemy territory are almost never attempted, calling the successful outcome a remarkable achievement.

CSAR missions for downed aircrew are among the most complex and time-sensitive operations special operations forces prepare for, typically requiring low-flying helicopters to penetrate hostile airspace, supported by strike aircraft and combat patrols to secure the extraction zone. In this case, the downed airman, a colonel, evaded Iranian capture for more than 24 hours while hiding in rugged, treacherous southern Iranian mountain terrain. He survived alone with only a handgun, taking shelter in a rocky mountain crevice after hiking 7,000 feet up a remote ridge to avoid detection. U.S. intelligence and military teams maintained 24-hour surveillance of the colonel’s position throughout the evasion period to plan the optimal extraction window. Following the successful recovery, he was airlifted to a U.S. medical facility in Kuwait to receive treatment for his injuries.

U.S. media reports highlight the Central Intelligence Agency playing a critical role in the mission: agency assets tracked the colonel’s exact position in the mountain crevice and relayed the coordinates directly to Pentagon planners. The CIA also ran an elaborate deception campaign inside Iran during the operation, spreading false information that the airman had already been captured and extracted to divert Iranian search teams away from the actual extraction zone. Trump confirmed that dozens of U.S. aircraft were deployed to support the mission, and emphasized that no U.S. personnel were killed or wounded during the operation itself.

Iranian state media has pushed back on the U.S. account, claiming that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) air defense units shot down a U.S. drone that was participating in the search for the downed airman. Prior to the successful U.S. extraction, Iranian officials had announced they were searching for the missing American with the goal of taking him alive, and even offered a public reward to Iranian citizens for any information that would lead to his capture.

Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at the Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities, explained that downed U.S. aircrew undergo rigorous training for exactly these types of survival scenarios. “Their number-one priority is to stay alive and to avoid capture,” Kavanagh told the BBC. “They’re trained to move away from the ejection site as quickly as possible, conceal their position, and rely on specialized survival training to forage for resources and go extended periods without food or water if needed.”

Iranian state media first broke news of the downing on Friday, confirming that IRGC air defenses had shot down the U.S. jet over southern Iran. While the exact crash site has not been officially confirmed, Iranian state media has named two possible provinces: Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, and Khuzestan.

Beyond the recovery of the second F-15 crew member, details have also emerged about the earlier extraction of the jet’s pilot. That operation included support from an A-10 Warthog strike aircraft, which was itself hit over the Persian Gulf, forcing its pilot to eject before he was also successfully rescued. One extraction helicopter carrying the recovered F-15E pilot sustained damage from small arms fire, leaving several crew members wounded, but the aircraft was able to land safely with no fatalities. Iran’s top joint military command has claimed that new domestically produced Iranian air defense systems were responsible for downing both U.S. aircraft, according to the country’s state-run IRNA news agency.

The F-15E Strike Eagle is a dual-role combat aircraft designed for both air-to-air combat and deep air-to-ground strike missions. U.S. military analysts note that in the context of recent tensions with Iran, F-15s operating in the region are most commonly used for defensive counter-air missions, intercepting Iranian drones and cruise missiles targeted at U.S. regional assets. When configured for strike operations, the jet can deploy a full range of precision-guided munitions, including laser and GPS-guided bombs. The jet’s standard two-person crew consists of a front-seat pilot and a back-seat weapons systems officer, nicknamed a “Wizzo,” who is responsible for target selection and weapons programming. While no official confirmation has been released on what weapon systems downed the F-15, military analysts note that if the jet was indeed shot down by Iranian forces, a surface-to-air missile (SAM) is the most likely cause.