India, April 5 -- When a fighter jet of the United States military, a two-seater F-15E Strike Eagle, went down over Iran in the early hours of Friday, both crew members ejected. The pilot was found within hours. The weapons systems officer (WSO) was not.

What followed was nearly 48 hours of evasion, deception and pursuit, ending in a daring rescue operation that will go down in US Special Forces history - the kind on which Hollywood movies are made.

The rescued officer has been identified by President Donald Trump as a colonel.

The colonel landed somewhere in mountainous terrain in a part of Iran where, according to US officials, there is significant opposition to the Islamic Republic regime that faced protests in the weeks before US a...