Trump says Iranian navy have been ‘actually shut’ to capturing trapped US airman earlier than American forces saved him in broad daylight rescue he stated confirmed ‘superb bravery and expertise’

A giant banner has been pictured in Tehran reading the message: ‘The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed; the entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground’.

President Trump’s audacious extraction of a US airman came agonisingly close to being a disaster and could have led to dozens of casualties on Iranian soil.

Two transport planes and one helicopter became stuck in the mud and were unable to take off, leaving more military personnel stranded behind enemy lines as Basij fighters closed in on their botched rescue site.

The failed extraction could have cost dozens of lives, but three more transport planes arrived just in time, as the colonel and other forces were evacuated under gunfire from the advancing Iranians.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society says that one of its ambulances was hit early this morning when it was dispatched on a rescue operation in the Komher area.

There were no casualties, it said, as the crew abandoned the ambulance as soon as it noticed an approaching fighter jet.

‘Previously, 46 Red Crescent and emergency ambulances across the country were damaged by airstrikes in the recent imposed war, and four Red Crescent Society rescuers were also martyred’, the group said.

President Donald Trump said the effort to rescue the second pilot was a rarely attempted type of operation because of the potential dangers.

He said in a social media post on Sunday that the pilot was ‘seriously wounded and really brave’ and rescued from ‘deep inside the mountains’ in Iran.

Trump said the pilot is a ‘highly respected Colonel’ and that Iranian forces were ‘looking hard, in big numbers’ and ‘getting close’ to him.

He also gave details of the rescue of the first pilot, who Trump said was rescued in ‘broad daylight’ after seven hours over Iran.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrived in Damascus on Sunday, with Turkish media reporting that he will hold a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

According to state-run Anadolu Agency, topics of discussion will include joint projects for the rebuilding of Syria as well as regional developments, such as the integration of northeast Syria into the central government and the impact of nearby conflicts in Iran and Lebanon.

Fidan’s last visit to Syria was on December 22, 2025, alongside Defense Minister Yasar Guler and National Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin.

Four people have been killed and a further 39 injured in an Israeli strike on the Jnah area of southern Beirut, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

Israeli’s military earlier today said it would be targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in the Lebanese capital.

Images show plumes of thick smoke rising from buildings in the Jnah neighbourhood near Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the largest public medical facility in the country.

In a bizarre Truth Social post uploaded on Sunday, Donald Trump threatened to strike Iran’s power plants and bridges this Tuesday if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to marine traffic.

‘Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran.

‘There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F****** Strait, you crazy b*******, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!

‘Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP,’ he wrote.

Iran’s joint command threatened on Sunday to step up its attacks on oil and other civilian infrastructure facilities if the U.S. and Israel attack Iranian civilian facilities.

Iran’s state-run news agency quoted the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters as saying that it had attacked several oil and other infrastructure facilities in Israel and in the Gulf Arab countries after an Israeli airstrike struck Iran’s largest petrochemical complex.

President Donald Trump has threatened to unleash ‘all Hell’ on Iran if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t reopened.

The Iranian military claimed that the US rescue operation, which saved two trapped American airmen, had been ‘completely foiled’.

The statement came after US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the officer had been rescued in a search and rescue operation and was ‘SAFE and SOUND’.

‘The so-called US military rescue operation, planned as a deception and escape mission at an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan under the pretext of recovering the pilot of a downed aircraft, was completely foiled,’ said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the military’s central command, Khatam Al-Anbiya.

In a post to Truth Social on Sunday, Donald Trump wrote: ‘We have rescued the seriously wounded, and really brave, F-15 Crew Member/Officer, from deep inside the mountains of Iran.

‘The Iranian Military was looking hard, in big numbers, and getting close. He is a highly respected Colonel.

‘This type of raid is seldom attempted because of the danger to “man and equipment.” It just doesn’t happen!

‘The second raid came after the first one, where we rescued the pilot in broad daylight, also unusual, spending seven hours over Iran.

‘ An AMAZING show of bravery and talent by all! I will be having a News Conference, with the Military, at the Oval Office, on Monday, at 1:00 P.M.

‘God Bless our great MILITARY WARRIORS! President DONALD J.’

The Lebanese army said on Sunday that a soldier had been killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon.

Israel struck a building in south Beirut on Sunday after issuing an evacuation warning, Lebanese state media reported.