Trump Threatens to Jail Journalists Reporting on the Condition of 2 US Fighter Jet Pilots Who Fell in Iran

JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump threatened to imprison a journalist who leaked information on the condition of two US fighter jet pilots who were shot down in Iran.

Trump targeted journalists as part of a hunt for the truth of the information to the public that a US Air Force officer pilot was missing and not found on Friday, April 3, while another pilot was rescued.

"We're going to go to the media companies that released it, and we're going to say, 'For the sake of national security, give it up or go to jail,'" Trump said when explaining claims that the US carried out two separate rescues of US fighter jet pilots shot down in Iran last week.

"The person who makes the news will go to jail if he doesn't say it," Trump continued at the White House, Monday, April 6 local time, quoted from CNN.

Trump did not mention which media he meant. While White House officials refused to answer questions about the details,

Iranian media first reported the US fighter jet was shot down in Iran sparking widespread online discussion about the pilot's fate before any major US media outlets eventually published the news.

"The investigation is ongoing," a White House official said.

A number of media outlets, including CNN, reported over the weekend on the loss of the US fighter jet pilots and the US military's efforts to find and rescue them.

The US government then claimed the pilot of the second fighter jet was finally found on Sunday morning in a high-risk mission described by CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Monday as "comparable to finding a grain of sand in the middle of the desert."

The US F-15 fighter jet in flight requires two pilots, unlike the F-35 stealth fighter jet which is only piloted by one pilot.