In a recent outburst on social media, Donald Trump declared his intent to obliterate Iran, ending his fiery post with the unexpected phrase: “Praise be to Allah.”
On Easter Sunday morning, Trump took to Truth Social, writing: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all combined, in Iran.”
He went on to warn, “There will be nothing like it! Open the Strait, you crazy fools, or prepare to live in Hell—JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
This bold threat to bring chaos to the country follows closely behind US-Israeli air strikes on Iran’s tallest bridge, which resulted in the deaths of eight individuals.
The B1 bridge, a critical link between Iran’s capital and the western city of Karaj, was hit by two waves of attacks on Thursday. This action came after Trump threatened to bomb Tehran “back to the Stone Age.”
The second attack on the 136-metre structure took place while rescue forces were at the scene helping at least 95 injured people, Iranian state media claimed.
Now, Trump said Iran’s power plants will be bombed next if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.
The narrow and vital waterway that is used as a high-volume shipping route has been closed since the war broke out on February 28 with Iran vowing to block ‘enemy’ ships from getting through ever since.
Donald Trump has vowed to destroy Iran in an expletive-laden social media post, which he bizarrely ended with the phrase: ‘Praise be to Allah’
The president’s threat comes just days after US-Israeli air strikes destroyed Iran’s tallest bridge, killing eight people
The latest comes after US special forces rescued two F15 airmen who got trapped behind enemy lines as the war rages on.
They had to destroy two of their own planes as they completed the daring rescue mission.
The airman, alongside a pilot, had been in an F-15 fighter jet, which was shot down over a remote area of Iran on Friday.
The pilot had safely ejected and was rescued by two military helicopters the same day, but the second crew member had remained missing.
The missing crew member, who President Trump said was a highly respected Colonel, evaded pursuing Iranians for almost two days while Reaper drones overhead protected him from danger.
Armed with only a handgun to protect him and injured from his ejection from the F-15, the Colonel hid from danger before making a daring dash to the rescue site.
The complex rescue mission involved hundreds of special forces personnel along with several dozen warplanes and helicopters.
A firefight broke out on the ground as Iranian forces closed in on the stricken colonel.
As they made the extraction, two of the five rescue planes became stuck in a remote airfield inside Iran and were blown up by special forces to avoid being captured by the enemy.
Iranian state media released images of the search and rescue plane, which it claimed it shot down, though the US military says it ‘blew up’ themselves
Trump touted the operation late Saturday night as ‘one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History’.
Meanwhile, the president has been holed up inside the White House, ‘working nonstop’ during the holiday weekend as tensions continue to escalate, White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a X post on Saturday.
His last public appearance was on Wednesday when he visited the Supreme Court as it heard a birthright citizenship case. Later that night, he delivered an address to the nation on the war with Iran.
During the US airmen rescue mission, Iranian forces had been deceived after the CIA spread the word that US forces had already found the colonel.
The colonel was forced to hide and evade capture for a nerve-racking 36 hours deep inside Iranian territory in harsh terrain.
According to Axios, the colonel had been injured during ejection from the F-15 jet but remained mobile as he hid in the mountains.
Iranians had been offered a $60,000 bounty for the pilot’s ‘head,’ as the regime urged locals near the crash site to seize the American.
Bombs and weapons were fired from US warplanes to keep Iranian troops away from the stranded colonel.
At one point, he reached elevations of around 7,000 feet as he sought to evade capture from Iranian forces.
As US forces closed in on the stranded officer, a firefight broke out with Iranian troops.
Pictured: The ejected seat from the US aircraft as published in Iranian media
Three rescue planes flew out of Iran to Kuwait, and the mission was completed just before midnight.
Iranian state media claimed that the IRGC and police forces had destroyed the US C-130 military aircraft, which had flown into their airspace to rescue the colonel.
However, US officials said the aircraft became stuck in the sand on the runway and had to deploy three additional aircraft to complete the evacuation.
The two stranded aircrafts were destroyed to prevent them from falling into IRGC hands, sources told The New York Times.
An MH-6 Little Bird helicopter was also destroyed after it was damaged before evacuation, according to reports.
Iranian sources said hundreds of soldiers and Basij fighters who tried to interfere with the rescue operation were ‘neutralized’ by American special forces.
President Trump confirmed that the colonel was injured but will be ‘just fine’, as he celebrated snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
He said this was the first time in military memory that two US Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory, as he defiantly said that no American warfighter would ever be left behind.
He said dozens of aircrafts armed with ‘the most lethal weapons in the World’ were sent by the US military to retrieve him.
‘This brave warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,’ Trump added in a Truth Social post.
According to Fox News, the rescue mission’s success was partly thanks to a ‘deception campaign’ launched by the CIA inside Iran.
The intelligence agency spread the word that US forces had already found the colonel and were moving him, which confused Iranian forces.
The airman ejected from an F-15E fighter jet along with the aircraft’s pilot in the early hours of Friday, sparking a frantic two-day search operation that culminated in a fierce firefight.
Trump said the aircraft’s pilot was secretly rescued hours after the crash, but that operation was kept quiet to not ‘jeopardize our second rescue operation.’
He added that both operations were concluded ‘without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded.’
Iranian media reported five people were killed in strikes during the US rescue operation.
