The US has begun striking Iran in retaliation for its Monday night downing of an American military helicopter and its two pilots, US Central Command said Tuesday.
”CENTCOM forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 p.m. ET today at the Commander in Chief’s direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a US Army Apache helicopter,” the combatant command said.
”The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”
Minutes later, Iranian state media reported that a “projectile” had struck the Iranian port city of Sirik, which is near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier Tuesday, a source familiar with US military planning said any strikes would likely target Iran’s coasts by the strait — particularly areas Tehran has stored or launched weapons from.
The operation was launched about four hours after President Trump revealed the military had determined after an investigation that Tehran had shot down the helicopter, which was first reported as a “crash.”
Both crew members of the aircraft survived the attack, with a maritime drone rescuing them about two hours after the helicopter went down.
Trump cited their survival to downplay the incident, telling the Wall Street Journal that it “wasn’t a big deal” and emphasized that “the pilot is fine.”
That justification came less than a week after he told reporters that he would consider a return to full-scale war if Iran killed US troops.
An Iranian deputy foreign minister, meanwhile, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that Tehran did not “deliberately” shoot down the helicopter.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi — who has been intimately involved with peace negotiations — suggested it may have been an accident.
“Foreign forces in proximity to our territory are at constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents, or potentially being caught in crossfire,” he posted to X. “To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave.”
“We prefer language of diplomacy but speak other languages too,” he added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
