New Delhi, Aug. 12 -- ANKARA - The aircraft carrying America's Secretary of State, its Treasury Secretary and a senior White House adviser lifted off from Ankara Esenboga Airport on Monday evening under the full scrutiny of a waiting press pool. It was the decoy.

President Donald Trump had already left Turkey by a different route, concealed inside a catering truck that moved him across the tarmac to a military jet before the attention of airport security and assembled photographers had turned to the departure gate. The reason, officials familiar with the operation told The New York Times, was a credible assessment that Iranian forces had positioned surface-to-air missiles capable of bringing down any aircraft identified as carrying the A...