Photo: Alamy
The United States launched airstrikes against Iranian military targets on Wednesday after an American Army helicopter crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, escalating tensions across the Middle East and threatening fragile ceasefire negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
President Donald Trump said Iran was responsible for downing the aircraft while it was operating near the strategic waterway.
“The U.S. must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he wrote on social media.
Soon after the strikes, Kuwaiti air defenses intercepted incoming missiles and drones as Iran claimed responsibility for retaliatory attacks targeting Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. Missile warning sirens also sounded in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
United States Central Command said American fighter aircraft struck Iranian air defense systems, surveillance radar installations and ground-control stations around Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island.
“The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM said.
Iranian officials acknowledged strikes near Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island but did not provide details about casualties or damage. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that Tehran would retaliate.
“Iranian forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered,” Araghchi wrote on X. “Leave our region if you want to be safe.”
According to a U.S. official, the AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed after colliding with an Iranian drone during a patrol mission near the coast of Oman. The circumstances surrounding the collision remain under investigation.
Both American aviators survived and were rescued in what officials described as the first known U.S. military sea rescue conducted by an unmanned drone vessel.
Capt. Tim Hawkins of CENTCOM said a 24-foot autonomous vessel known as a Corsair rescued the crew before another helicopter transported them to safety.
The incident further strained a shaky ceasefire that has repeatedly come under pressure since the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran earlier this year.
