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Speaker 1: Today's Biggest News From The Australian, I'm Claire Harvey with

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Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. The War in Iran has yielded

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Speaker 1: its most dramatic survival story yet, with the United States

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Speaker 1: pulling off a high stakes rescue mission for a fighter

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Speaker 1: jet crew member who was shot down by Iranian forces

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Speaker 1: and left alone deep in enemy territory. It began on

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Speaker 1: Friday when a United States Air Force F fifteen E

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Speaker 1: Strike Eagle, a jet designed for air to ground assaults

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Speaker 1: and aerial combat, was shot down, apparently by Iranian forces

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Speaker 1: using a shoulderfied missile. Both crewmen on board ejected and

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Speaker 1: the pilot was quickly rescued by US forces. That was

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Speaker 1: an incredible effort in itself. The US deployed an A

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Speaker 1: ten Warthog, a low flying ground assault plane, and black

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Speaker 1: Hawk helicopters, which all took fire from Iranian forces on

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Speaker 1: the ground as they sought to rescue the pilot. In

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Speaker 1: one of the Blackhawks, several crew members were reportedly hit

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Speaker 1: with ground to air fire as they got the pilot

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Speaker 1: on board and flew out of the area. That left

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Speaker 1: the weapons systems officer from the Strike Eagle, the Colonel

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Speaker 1: who was likely commanding the mission. He couldn't be located,

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Speaker 1: but was understood to be injured somewhere in a southwestern

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Speaker 1: province of Iran called Kogilia and boyer Ahmat, full of

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Speaker 1: mountains and dense oak forests. Iranian authorities immediately put a

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Speaker 1: price on the colonel's head, offering a reward equivalent to

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Speaker 1: tens of thousands of Australian dollars for any local who

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Speaker 1: found him. The US also launched a massive intelligence and

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Speaker 1: misinformation operation, according to American reports, spreading rumors within Iran

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Speaker 1: that the Americans had already secured the colonel and were

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Speaker 1: moving him on the ground in Iran in a vehicle convoy.

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Speaker 1: That wasn't true, and the colonel was in fact scaling

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Speaker 1: to the top of a mountain ridge line more than

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Speaker 1: two thousand meters above sea level, where he wedged himself

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Speaker 1: in to a crevice. He was armed only with a pistol.

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Speaker 1: American Special Forces troops were sent in to help find him,

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Speaker 1: while the Central Intelligence Agency used its assets on the

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Speaker 1: ground to convince locals in the province, where there's reportedly

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Speaker 1: significant resistance to the Iranian regime, to help block the

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Speaker 1: path of Iranian troops and the Revolutionary Guard who were

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Speaker 1: trying to find him. From the air, the US bombed

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Speaker 1: military vehicles that were approaching the colonel's hiding spot and

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Speaker 1: deployed its famous naval special warfare development group, known colloquially

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Speaker 1: as Seal Team six. This is the unit that killed

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Speaker 1: Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in twenty eleven. A seventeen

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Speaker 1: hundred strong counter terrorism unit of elite Navy personnel who

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Speaker 1: specialize in targeted operations behind enemy lines. Seal Team six

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Speaker 1: was formed after the nineteen seventy nine Iran hostage crisis,

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Speaker 1: where shortly after the Islamic Revolution, Iran health captive almost

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Speaker 1: the entire staff of the United States Embassy for more

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Speaker 1: than a year, and US military efforts to rescue them

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Speaker 1: failed catastrophically. The diplomats were eventually released through a series

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Speaker 1: of negotiations, but the whole experience cost then President Jimmy

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Speaker 1: Carter power. It was also one of the catalysts for

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Speaker 1: a young property developer named Donald Trump to raise his

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Speaker 1: political voice. Trump said at the time he thought Carter

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Speaker 1: should have launched an all out assault on Iran to

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Speaker 1: free the hostages, and has repeatedly mocked Carter in recent decades.

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Speaker 1: Once Seal Team six was on the ground, the colonel

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Speaker 1: activated a satellite based transmission device, which can send encryptid

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Speaker 1: text messages. But Donald Trump has told the new site

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Speaker 1: Axios American commanders were by then worried the colonel had

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Speaker 1: already been captured. His first message said God is good,

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Speaker 1: something Trump said sounded like it could have been written

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Speaker 1: by the Iranians, but friends of the colonel said he

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Speaker 1: was deeply Christian and reassured the rescue leaders it was

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Speaker 1: in keeping with his beliefs. While the commandos reached the colonel,

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Speaker 1: US forces were marshaling at an abandoned airstrip, but once

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Speaker 1: they were ready for take off, there was a problem

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Speaker 1: with at least one of the Hercules military transport aircraft.

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Speaker 1: The Americans destroyed the plane and called in other Air

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Speaker 1: Force units, including helicopters, to rescue them. Donald Trump said

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Speaker 1: the Israeli military had helped with at least one airstrike

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Speaker 1: on Iranian forces who were closing in on the Americans

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Speaker 1: during the rescue. That remarkable story, plus all the latest

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Speaker 1: from the Iran War, is live right now at the

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Speaker 1: Australian dot Com dot AU plus tomorrow. On the front,

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Speaker 1: we're taking a close look at exactly how Iran has

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Speaker 1: managed to hold out so long against the might of

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Speaker 1: the US and Israeli militaries. A series of underground cities

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Speaker 1: where missiles, drones and fuel are stored. That's right here,

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Speaker 1: Tuesday morning,