WASHINGTON — On Monday, President Donald Trump shared updates about the ongoing operations in Iran, including additional details about the rescue of U.S. airmen who were shot down in an F-15E over Iran. 

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Over the weekend, Trump said that the U.S. servicemember who was rescued is "a highly respected Colonel" and that he was "seriously wounded" and found "deep inside the mountains of Iran." 

"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!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform. 

The president began describing the rescue efforts from Friday and over the weekend after two airmen ejected and landed alive “deep in enemy territory” in Iran.

Trump said 21 aircraft were deployed to help with the search and rescue in the first wave, flying for hours under “very, very heavy enemy fire.” He said the U.S. has one helicopter with many bullets in it.

Trump says the downed weapons officer followed his training to get as far away from the crash site as possible.

When a plane crashes in hostile territory, “they all head right to that site, you want to be as far away as you can,” Trump said.

Trump says the officer was “bleeding profusely” but was able to climb mountainous terrain and contact U.S. forces to communicate his location. Rescuers mobilized a massive response that included subterfuge to confuse the Iranians about where they were looking.

The president described the scale of the operation undertaken by the U.S. to rescue the second airman from the downed aircraft, which included 155 aircraft.

More specifically, it included four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft, among others, Trump said.

Much of it was an effort to throw off the Iranians, who were also looking for the missing crew member, the president said.

“We were bringing them all over and a lot of it was subterfuge,” Trump said. “We wanted to have them think he was in a different location.”

During the news conference at the White House, Trump threatened to jail the journalist who first reported that U.S. forces were searching for an F-15 weapons officer shot down in Iran if they don’t reveal their sources.

“The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say, and that doesn’t last long,” Trump said.

Trump didn’t name the journalist or news organization. He said the leak tipped off the Iranians, endangering the officer and his rescuers. He called the leaker “a sick person.”

The Defense secretary, who has frequently infused his leadership of the Pentagon with references to Christianity and the language of his faith, said the airman who evaded capture for more than a day was shot down on Good Friday, “hidden in a cave” on Saturday, and on Easter Sunday, “a pilot reborn, all home and accounted for.”

Hegseth said that when the airman was finally able to activate an emergency transponder, his first transmitted message was: “God is good.”

Also on Monday, the Associated Press also reported that Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said that Tehran rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and wants a permanent end to the war, which itself came shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz or see its power plants and bridges attacked.

The news agency said Iran had conveyed its response to the U.S. through Pakistan.

“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press on Monday. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”

On the Strait of Hormuz, Ferdousi Pour said Iranian and Omani officials were working on a mechanism for administering the shipping chokepoint.