{"id":106474,"date":"2026-05-10T10:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T10:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/106474\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T10:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T10:53:08","slug":"idf-us-ran-covert-rescue-operations-from-iraq-during-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/106474\/","title":{"rendered":"IDF, US ran covert rescue operations from Iraq during Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following disclosures by the Wall Street Journal and Qatari media about IDF operations in Iraq<\/a> related to the war with Iran, The Jerusalem Post can now disclose matters that were previously kept under the radar.<\/p>\n

Already on April 6, the Israeli censor permitted the Post to publicize some details from an interview with IDF Hatzerim Air Force Base Chief Brig. Gen. “R”, who commands both F-15<\/a> and F-16 squadrons.<\/p>\n

Asked to describe relations with the US Air Force, he responded, “It is truly historic and unprecedented. Israel has never worked directly operationally with any other country’s air force. The US also has never worked with another country like this – military relations are truly intimate.”<\/p>\n

“I was personally on the way to attack Iran, and was refueling over Iraq with US forces talking to them in English and telling the whole story of my mission,” he then added as a side point for color.<\/p>\n

Suffice to say that Brig. Gen. R was far from the only Israeli pilot to fly through Iraqi airspace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These were not the only details which had been revealed to the Post.<\/p>\n

The Post had also learned that IDF special forces rescue units had been clandestinely placed in Iraq in order to have the capability to jump into action to rescue any IDF pilots who might crash-land if they were shot down.<\/p>\n

Only now that the Wall Street Journal and Qatari<\/a> media are reporting more details about the IDF presence that temporarily existed in Iraq, and the Iraqi government’s furor over the incident (or at least that it was made public) has gone public, the Post can now confirm the various details about a small Israeli rescue team being established in Iraq.<\/p>\n

In the end, no Israeli pilots were shot down, so the Israeli rescue team did not need to act, but it was there to be ready for the worst-case scenarios, and American pilots were shot down and had to be rescued by US forces in real time.<\/p>\n

None of this is the first time that Israel has acted regarding Iraq.<\/p>\n

Prior to the October 7 war, occasionally the Israeli censor allowed publication about limited Israeli attacks on Iranian forces who were trying to use Iraqi territory to position themselves to be able to launch an arsenal of missiles against the Jewish state from Iraqi territory.<\/p>\n

Foreign media reported even more occasional Israeli attacks to remove such threats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following disclosures by the Wall Street Journal and Qatari media about IDF operations in Iraq related to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[423,94,215,1045,5099],"class_list":{"0":"post-106474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iraq","8":"tag-idf","9":"tag-iraq","10":"tag-israel-iran-war","11":"tag-israeli-air-force","12":"tag-us-air-force"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116549910807389101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}