US forces have wrapped up a new round of strikes on Iran, a response Washington says was triggered by the downing of an American attack helicopter near one of the world’s most important shipping chokepoints.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said on X that it had “completed self-defence strikes against Iran”.
“CENTCOM forces struck Iranian air defence, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from US Air Force and Navy fighter jets,” the post said.
The United States launched strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump said Tehran had shot down a US Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz, deepening doubts over a potential peace deal and further straining a fragile ceasefire.
“I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that’s what this one is,” Mr Trump told ABC News.
Mr Trump downplayed the seriousness of the downed helicopter
Iran’s state media reported that Qeshm island in the Strait of Hormuz was attacked and that a projectile hit was confirmed in the port city of Sirik on the strait.
Sounds of explosions were heard in nearby Bandar Abbas, and later in the vicinity of Jask County, near the entrance to the strait, Iranian media reported, citing local sources and residents.
Following the initial strikes, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi posted on X that the country would “leave no attack or threat unanswered”.
In an earlier post, he did not directly address the helicopter incident, but said foreign forces in the region risked being involved in accidents or crossfire.
“To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave,” Mr Araqchi wrote.
Two US pilots involved in the helicopter incident were uninjured, according to Mr Trump.
The Apache helicopter was brought down by a one-way Iranian attack drone, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Iran’s state media cited a military source as saying that no offensive air military operations have been conducted in the Strait of Hormuz in the previous 24 hours.
The source was also quoted as saying that there would be a decisive response in the event of renewed “hostility by the enemy” in response to the helicopter incident.
Not a big deal?
Mr Trump told The Wall Street Journal during a phone call that the helicopter incident “wasn’t a big deal” and stressed that “the pilot is fine”.
However, both the helicopter episode and the retaliatory strikes could further strain efforts to broker a peace deal to end the wider Middle East war and reopen Hormuz, a vital conduit for petroleum and other commodities.
Mr Trump has repeatedly said Iran and the United States are close to an agreement, though there have been few signs of progress since a tenuous ceasefire took effect in early April.
A US Navy surface drone found and rescued the two crew, the US military said, after the US Army attack helicopter went down in waters near Oman’s coast while on patrol at around 3am on Tuesday.
The US military’s Central Command said the soldiers were rescued after two hours and that they were in stable condition.
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Tyre today
Meanwhile Israel struck the historic port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, 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.
A video verified by Reuters showed debris strewn across a road at the site of the attack.
Israel’s refusal to end its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah has hindered Mr Trump’s efforts to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the wider US-Israeli war with Iran into a durable settlement.
Iran and Israel exchanged airstrikes earlier this week, killing two people in Tehran.
Iran has long said any peace deal with Washington depends in part on an end to fighting in Lebanon.
In northern Israel, Israeli troops operating in the Ramim Ridge area close to Lebanon’s border killed one person in an incident in which they returned fire, the military said.
Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people, saying the conflict should be treated separately from any US-Iranian ceasefire.
Hezbollah has also continued its attacks.
At the same time, Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas.
Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is rising “very meaningfully”, but added it would take many months to get back to normal flows of energy once the war is over.
Mr Trump has said any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s demands include the lifting of international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its control of the waterway.
