← Americans on Iranian Soil

דיווח: כוחות אמריקנים מיוחדים החלו בפעולה קרקעית באיראן לחילוץ הנווט הנעדר — Report: US special forces began a ground operation in Iran to rescue the missing navigator

On 4 April 2026, Walla, a major Israeli news site, last updated דיווח: כוחות אמריקנים מיוחדים החלו בפעולה קרקעית באיראן לחילוץ הנווט הנעדר. Idan Kweller wrote it. The page says US special forces entered Iran overnight to find a crewman from a downed F-15, a US fighter jet. An American family should care because this is a report of American soldiers on Iranian soil. It describes a rescue search. It does not describe an order to occupy Iran.

Background for a new reader. The United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February 2026. Around 3 April 2026 (the night of 2 to 3 April) Iran shot down a US F-15E fighter-bomber over Iran, and its two-man crew ejected. The rescue that followed is the one time, on the record so far, that American soldiers are known to have been on the ground inside Iran in this war. This page is an Israeli account of that rescue.

Evidence rating: STRONG. The rating covers the report that US special forces had gone into Iran to look for a downed crewman. On this page it rests on the British Telegraph, retold by Walla. Axios reported special forces on the ground on 3 and 4 April, Globes described the completed rescue on 5 and 6 April, and in September Adm. Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, described more than 90 Americans on the ground on CBS. The details about ground fire rest on the Telegraph.

What the article says

Walla says the entry was a race against Iranian forces to reach the missing airman. The subhead, which Walla attributes to the Telegraph, says US Army commandos were on the ground to find and bring back the navigator, that the pilot who had been with him was already rescued, and that the navigator's fate was still unknown. The opening sentence instead calls the missing man a pilot. One crewman was rescued. The other was not yet accounted for. Local forces in Iran had started a manhunt, and a cash reward had been offered.

כוחות מיוחדים של צבא ארצות הברית נכנסו הלילה (שבת) לשטח איראן במסגרת מבצע חילוץ מורכב לאיתור איש צוות ממטוס F-15 שהופל, במהלכו של מרוץ נגד הזמן מול כוחות איראניים להגיע אל הטייס הנעדר.

Walla, 4 April 2026. The next paragraph says this follows a Telegraph report.

Walla, still citing the Telegraph, says rescue helicopters and refueling planes flew low, went deep into Iran, and took light fire from the ground. It says two helicopters were hit. One was filmed trailing smoke on the way back to Iraq and still landed safely.

The page also says the New York Times reported that, almost at the same time, another US fighter was shot down near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea passage out of the Persian Gulf, and that its only pilot was rescued. It says an F-35 was hit the month before, made an emergency landing in a neighboring country, and the pilot survived.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had been updated and was holding ongoing assessments. She did not, on this page, confirm that soldiers had crossed into Iran. Trump later told NBC the shootdown would not affect talks with Iran. He would not discuss the search, and he objected to news coverage of what he called a very intense and sensitive military operation.

Iranian state television offered a valuable prize for information on where the American pilots were. The page says footage from southern Iran shows US Black Hawk helicopters refueling from a Hercules and making repeated passes, apparently searching. Walla then says the Americans seemed to be looking for two air crews, a pilot and a systems operator, and trying to reach them before the Revolutionary Guards. Iran's Tasnim news agency claimed one of them was already captured. Walla notes that the same agency had earlier claimed a stealth aircraft was shot down and exploded with no survivors.

What other reporting and posts add

• Axios, the next day. A repost of the market-news account FirstSquawk on 5 April 2026 reads: "Axios reports that U.S. special forces were deployed on the ground in Iran on both Friday and Saturday as part of a search…" The sentence is cut off in the capture, and no Axios link came with it. Repost. (capture: twitter/t49__v584.md)
• A same-day caution. An analyst's 4 April 2026 "reality check" said there was "No verified evidence of a ground invasion of Iran" and "No confirmation of large-scale U.S. ground combat inside Iran," while US ground-capable forces were in the region. It did not address a small rescue team. Post. (capture: twitter/t50__v590.md)
• Official confirmation, five months later. On 14 September 2026 a post pasting RT's write-up of a CBS 60 Minutes segment says Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM, the US military headquarters for the Middle East), told CBS that "More than 90 US service members were ultimately deployed on the ground" and described them as "the first acknowledged US 'boots on the ground' in Iran in 46 years." RT is Russian state media, so the CBS segment itself is the record to check. Post. (capture: twitter/t49__v581.md)
• Old videos sold as new. CNN Arabic published a fact check on 5 April 2026 titled, in its URL, "an old video circulating online allegedly shows US forces entering Iran." CNN Arabic. The page was not opened. (capture: twitter/t55__v652.md)

What it shows

Walla, one of Israel's largest news sites, told Hebrew readers on 4 April that American special forces were already inside Iran, while the President refused to discuss the search. Israeli readers learned of American boots on Iranian soil in real time; the American public was told officially only months later. See Americans Already on Iranian Soil.

Check it yourself

Walla, last updated 4 April 2026: דיווח: כוחות אמריקנים מיוחדים החלו בפעולה קרקעית באיראן לחילוץ הנווט הנעדר.

A later account opened while writing this page: Globes, 6 April 2026, הרגע שבו מבצע החילוץ הדרמטי באיראן כמעט נכשל. It describes the same rescue after the fact. It is not the source of the ground-fire details above.

Research captures: twitter/t49__v584.md, twitter/t50__v590.md, twitter/t49__v581.md, twitter/t55__v652.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26