US President Donald Trump was on the verge of a crisis in the Iran conflict, faced with the rare instance of an American airman shot down and stranded deep inside enemy territory. However, the airman's daring weekend rescue gave the president a chance to quickly flip the script, according to a Reuters analysis. 

Standing before cameras on Monday, Trump recast the perilous operation as a providential military triumph, leaning in to its cinematic elements to project strength and command of a five-week-old war that remains deeply ‌unpopular with US voters.

He detailed an intricate rescue mission that he conceded was bolstered by luck.

"Hundreds of people could have been killed," Trump told reporters, noting that some military officials advised him against the operation. "So we had people that were within the military that said this is not wise, and I understood that. But I decided to do it."

Trump described a bleeding officer who evaded capture in Iran for two days, and search-and-rescue teams scaling mountains and trying to lift aircraft out of wet sand before destroying machinery that might otherwise fall into enemy hands.

"We blew up the old planes," Trump said, adding that the planes contained communications equipment and anti-missile technology.

The search-and-rescue mission was then conducted by "faster, lighter planes," Trump said.

The US military had used as many as 155 warplanes to rescue the airman in Iran, he said.

"How many men did you send altogether?" Trump asked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, who was standing nearby.

"I'd love to keep that a secret," Caine said.

"I'll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds and hundreds of these people," Trump said.

Reporters squeezed into the crowded room, blocking aisles and an entryway, and verbally sparred with one another to gain a more advantageous position in the president's line ‌of sight.

Trump seemed to revel in the details of the military's prowess, suggesting at a separate White House event earlier ‌on Monday that the rescue might someday be depicted in a movie.

He also threatened to jail a journalist at an unnamed news outlet who first reported that one airman had been successfully rescued before the second missing airman was found.

Two-thirds of Americans favor a prompt end to US military operations against Iran, even if the initial goals set out by the Trump administration are not fully achieved, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week.

A majority say they are concerned for US military personnel and have a negative outlook for their personal finances as energy prices soar. More than three out of four oppose sending ground troops to Iran, which US officials have said is among options under consideration.

A CIA deception campaign

Standing next to Trump at Monday's briefing, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency played a key role during the search and rescue efforts by using "human assets and exquisite technologies" to locate the airman and determine he was alone and alive on Saturday morning.

Ratcliffe described the search and rescue as a "daunting challenge" that is "comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert."

"This was also a race against the clock, as it was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible, while at the same time keeping our enemies misdirected," he told reporters.

Ratcliffe confirmed that the CIA "executed a deception campaign" against Iran during the rescue so that the missing pilot, when "concealed in a mountain crevice," was "invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA."

At the same press briefing, Caine told reporters that the US A-10 Warthog downed on Friday was conducting a "sandy" mission – positioning itself between the rescue force and enemy fire.

The aircraft was hit multiple times by Iranian fire, but the pilot managed to fly it out of Iran before ejecting over friendly territory.

The plane had only one job, "Get to the survivor, bring the rescue force forward, and put themselves between that survivor on the ground and the enemy," said Caine.

Trump said that an Iranian shoulder-fired missile downed the US Air Force F-15E jet on Friday. But neither the president nor his top officials elaborated on the type of munition and how the fighter jet was shot down.

Trump administration officials, normally loath to discuss internal deliberations, over the weekend helped reporters write vivid accounts of the stunning operation.

Iran has said the US mission was a failure, saying four US military aircraft – two C-130 Hercules military transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters – were shot down in the process.

Read more:

US calls F‑15E crew rescue a success; Iran deems it a failure

(With input from Xinhua, Reuters)