This is the astonishing moment an American pilot shouts ‘I’m OK’ to locals after crash-landing in the Kuwaiti desert.
Six US Air Force members survived after parachuting to safety following a mistaken friendly fire incident during an Iranian air assault, the US military said.
One man was approached by a group of locals armed with AK-47s who presumed he was a shot-down Iranian pilot.
He is seen surrendering, with one local holding up a pipe.
Another was pictured with a badly damaged hand before being loaded into the boot of a car and taken to safety.
One female F-15 crew member is seen standing alone in the Kuwaiti desert as a man approaches her.
She brushes sand from her jumpsuit but appears unharmed.
The man asks: ‘You’re fine? Really? Do you need something to help you?’
She replies: ‘No, I’m OK.’
He responds: ‘No problem, you’re safe, you’re safe… Everything good, no problem.
‘Thank you for helping us.’
All six crew members ejected safely from the F-15E Strike Eagles, which can reach speeds just shy of 2,000mph and were in stable condition after being recovered, the US said.
An attack by Iranian aircraft, missiles and drones was underway at the time the planes were shot down.
Iranian state television claimed that Iran had targeted one of the US planes that crashed in Kuwait without elaborating.
Explosions could be heard as one of the planes fell from the sky in flames, said witness Ahmed al-Asar, who rushed to the scene with about a dozen others as an airman parachuted to the ground.
Al-Asar initially thought it was an Iranian pilot, but recognized he was American before rescuers whisked him away.
It is reported that US pilots have messages printed in local languages offering a reward if they are returned to friendly forces.
One read: ‘I am an American and I do not speak Arabic/Turkish/Persian/Kurdish. I will do you no harm.
‘My friend, please provide me with food, water, shelter, clothing, and a doctor.
‘Also, help me get to the American forces or those of other friendly nations. When you give my name and this number to the American authorities, you will be rewarded for helping me.’
The intensity of the attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the lack of any apparent exit plan set the stage for a prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.
Safe havens in the Middle East like Dubai have seen incoming fire; hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe; oil prices shot up; and US allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.
With no sign of the conflict abating anytime soon, Mr Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared “to go far longer than that”.
He said US forces were determined to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its naval capacity, stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that Iran cannot continue to support allied groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes.
‘This was our last, best chance to strike, what we’re doing right now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,’ Trump said.
Iran has long threatened, if attacked, to drag the region into total war, including targeting Israel, the Gulf Arab states and the flow of crude oil crucial for global energy markets.
Mr Trump said that he would not get ‘bored’ with continuing the operation over a four to five week period.
‘I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this.’
He said the US had also projected it would take four weeks to get rid of Iran’s military leadership, but that was quickly accomplished ‘so we’re ahead of schedule there’.
Meanwhile, the death toll grew on all sides.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that the joint US-Israeli operation has killed at least 555 people.
Meanwhile, four American troops have been killed, and three people were reported killed in the United Arab Emirates and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.
An Iranian drone strike on a hotel in the city of Manama, the capital of Bahrain, injured two employees with the Department of Defense over the weekend, according a diplomatic cable from the State Department seen by The Washington Post.
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