The United States launched military strikes against Iran early Wednesday after President Donald Trump accused Tehran of shooting down a US Army Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, sharply escalating a Gulf standoff that has already closed most commercial shipping through the chokepoint.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said American forces began carrying out strikes at 5:00 p.m. EST (10:00 p.m. BST), describing the operation as a “proportional response” to what it called Iranian aggression, Newswire reported.
Trump said the two crew members aboard the downed Apache were safely rescued by a US Navy sea drone and suffered no injuries, adding that the United States “must, of necessity, respond to this attack.” The crash had been confirmed earlier on Monday but Washington had stopped short of attributing it to Iranian fire when the President spoke from John F. Kennedy International Airport the same day.
US officials said the helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global shipping route, although at least one official indicated it remained unclear whether the aircraft had been deliberately targeted.
Iran’s Fars news agency reported several explosions in eastern areas of Hormozgan province, including Kuhistak, Sirik and Minab, following the announcement of the US strikes. The targeted areas sit along Iran’s southern coastline opposite the Strait of Hormuz, where Tehran maintains naval and air assets.
The strikes mark the first publicly confirmed US kinetic operation against Iranian territory in the current cycle and supersede the diplomatic framework Trump had pushed earlier this week, when the president told reporters the Strait could reopen within two to three days once a deal was signed and predicted in a separate tele-rally that Washington would declare “total victory” over Iran within two weeks. The retaliation also lands in the same theatre where the US Navy struck the sanctioned Marivex tanker off Oman on Monday and where Iran has enforced a 30-day shipping deadline through the Strait.
