US retaliates after Iran shoots down Apache
The US military says it has begun strikes against Iran in “a proportional response”, following the crash of a US Army Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military has launched new strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump vowed to respond to the downing of an Apache attack helicopter, in the latest escalation that threatens the fragile ceasefire.
The US military’s Central Command said that “self-defence strikes” started at 5pm on Tuesday Washington time, at Trump’s direction.
“The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” it said.
Sounds of explosions were heard in eastern parts of Iran’s Hormozgan province, Fars news agency reported early on Wednesday (local time).
Iranian state media also said a hit had been confirmed in Sirik.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a one-way Iranian attack drone brought down the Apache.
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Central Command has said the two crew members were rescued by a sea drone, in a first. They are in stable conditions.
Trump earlier vowed to respond over the downed helicopter, deepening doubts about prospects for a truce announced in April in the war in the Gulf.
“I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
He said the two US pilots involved in the incident were safe and uninjured.
“Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he said.
The episode adds further strain to efforts to broker a peace deal to end the wider Middle East war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for international trade in energy and other commodities.
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A US Navy surface drone found and rescued the two Apache crew, the US military told Reuters. US Central Command said the AH-64 Apache went down about 3am local time on Tuesday.
On Monday, Israel and Iran said they would halt attacks on each other after an appeal from Trump to end their first direct exchanges of fire since April, but Tehran warned it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to attack its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In Tehran, two Iranian air defence personnel killed in Israeli strikes on Monday were to be buried on Tuesday afternoon, Iran’s military said. No deaths were reported in Israel after the Iranian strikes.
In a parallel conflict, Israel struck the historic port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least eight people. It was the deadliest strike on the city since fighting erupted in Lebanon in early March, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of Tehran after Israel and the United States began their war against Iran.
Israel had issued an evacuation order for the city earlier on Tuesday. Residents fled and civil defence teams took elderly residents into temporary shelters, state media reported. The eight victims were killed in a single strike on the city’s eastern edge, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
A video verified by Reuters showed debris strewn across a road at the site of the attack.
Israel’s refusal to end its campaign in Lebanon, as Iran demands, has hindered Trump’s efforts to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the wider US-Israeli war with Iran into a durable settlement.
Trump said earlier he might have “an idea” for an Iran deal in a few days, without elaborating. The Republican president, struggling with record-low approval ratings as November’s midterm elections approach, has hinted often at an imminent deal with Tehran, but none has yet materialised.
In an interview with Axios, Trump said he had warned the Israeli leader not to return to war with Iran: “I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon.’”
However, Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir said on Tuesday that Israel’s attack on Iran the previous day was “in preparation for a much more significant and heavy blow”.
“We are prepared to return and deliver another severe and deep strike against Iran,” he said during a visit to training exercises in northern Israel.
Tehran has long said any peace deal with Washington depends in part on an end to fighting in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who had fired across the border.
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