Iran has raised questions over a US mission to rescue a Colonel from a mountainous region in western Iran, suggesting the operation may have had a broader objective — possibly targeting enriched uranium — and describing the attempt as a “humiliating defeat” for the US.The US on Sunday announced it had successfully rescued a Colonel, who was the weapons systems operator on the ill-fated F-15E Strike Eagle jet that was downed on Thursday.The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) referred to the images of destroyed planes and helicopters within in Iranian territory and said “the enemy’s flying objects were destroyed, and the US once again suffered a humiliating defeat”.The IRGC was referring to what it claimed was the loss of 11 US planes in the firefight that ensued during the ‘rescue mission’. Iran’s joint military command later said the US bombarded its own aircraft to “prevent embarrassment for President Donald Trump.”The Iranian Fars News Agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that the US lost 11 planes in the ‘mission’ — two C-130 aircraft; four UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters; one A-10 “Warthog” attack aircraft; two “Little Bird” helicopters; two MQ-9 “Reaper” drones.  These 11 aviation assets are besides the F-15E “Strike Eagle” two-seat fighter jet that was downed over Iran on April 3.The US has so far not given out its list of losses, however, if the Iranian claims are correct this could be $400 million worth of hardware loss for the US.US-based news outlet CNN geolocated footage of the burnt-out planes and helicopters to the southern Isfahan province in Iran.In June last year, when Israel and US bombed Iran, the enriched nuclear fuel – Uranium — was moved to site near Isfahan. Western analysts, including former US and UK military officers, suggested the rescue mission did not need to deploy so many aircraft and that the real target may have been ‘something else’.US forces said two of its planes, the MC-130J’s, had not been able to fly out and described them as ‘struck in the sand’.Analysts noted that the rescued US Colonel had a location-emitting beacon and was positioned at an altitude of 7,000 feet. While a helicopter was dispatched for extraction, the presence of so many assets on the ground in Iran raised questions.Armed drones, the MQ9B kept a continuous watch from above and fired at anyone, or vehicle, within a 3-mile radius of the Colonel’s location in a mountain crevice in western Iran. The Colonel had trekked to the height, away from the crash site, to avoid the trailing Iranian forces.The US deployed dozens of planes, special operations troops, cyber, space and intelligence assets.An attempted extraction of hostages in 1980 in Iran had failed, when two US aviation assets collided while aborting the mission. The airmen were taken hostage by Iran for almost 18 months.  Another rescue attempt of a pilot in 1995 in Bosnia was successful, and it inspired a movie ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ in 2001.