US says it has completed strikes responding to Iran helicopter attack

Washington has declared its response complete after a US Apache helicopter was shot down near the Strait of Hormuz, a dramatic escalation that again throws any prospect of a US-Iran peace deal into doubt.

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 the operation after President Donald Trump said Tehran had downed a US Apache helicopter in the Strait of ⁠Hormuz, adding new strain to an already fragile ceasefire and dimming hopes for a broader peace agreement.

Mr Trump brushed aside the significance of the downed helicopter

Iranian state media said Qeshm island in the Strait of Hormuz had come under attack, and reported a confirmed projectile strike in the port city of Sirik on the waterway.

Explosions were also heard in nearby Bandar Abbas and later around Jask County, close to the entrance to the strait, Iranian media said, citing local sources and residents.

After the first wave of strikes, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X that the country would “leave no attack or threat unanswered”.

In an earlier message, he did not directly mention the helicopter incident but warned that foreign forces in the region risked becoming caught up in accidents or crossfire.

“To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave,” Mr Araqchi wrote.

At the same time, Bahrain issued an air raid alert, according to the kingdom’s interior ministry, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted a US base in the Gulf state.

“The siren has been sounded. Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,” the ministry said on X.

Hardly a major incident?

A one-way Iranian attack drone brought down the Apache helicopter, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mr Trump said the two US pilots involved were not injured.

In a phone call with The Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump said the helicopter incident “wasn’t a big deal” and emphasized that “the pilot is fine”.

Still, the helicopter’s loss and the US retaliation threaten to complicate already-stalled attempts to secure a peace deal, end the broader Middle East war and ‌reopen Hormuz, one of the world’s most important arteries for petroleum and other goods.

Mr Trump has repeatedly insisted Iran and the United States are close to an agreement, although there have been scant signs of momentum since a shaky ceasefire took hold in early April.

A US Navy surface drone located and rescued the two crew members, the US military said, ⁠after the Army attack helicopter went down in waters off Oman’s coast while on patrol at about 3am on Tuesday.

Central Command ‌said the soldiers were recovered after two hours and were in stable condition.

Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike in Tyre

Elsewhere, Israel struck the historic southern Lebanese port city of Tyre, killing at least eight people.

The attack was the deadliest on the city since fighting in Lebanon flared in early March, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel.

Video verified by Reuters showed debris scattered across a road at the scene of the strike.

Israel’s refusal to halt its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah has undercut Mr Trump’s efforts to turn a fragile ceasefire in the wider US-Israeli war with Iran into a lasting settlement.

Earlier ⁠this week, Iran and Israel traded airstrikes that killed two people in Tehran.

Tehran has long maintained that any peace deal with Washington partly depends on an end to the fighting in Lebanon.

In northern Israel, the military said troops operating in the Ramim Ridge area near ⁠the Lebanese border killed one person after returning fire in an incident there.

Israel has never suspended its Lebanon offensive, which has killed thousands, arguing that conflict on that front must be treated separately from any US-Iranian ceasefire.

Hezbollah, for its part, has kept up its attacks as well.

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 also enforced its own blockade on Iranian ports.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is rising “very meaningfully”, but cautioned that it would take many months after the war ends for energy flows to return to normal.

Mr Trump has said any peace agreement must guarantee that Iran cannot build a nuclear weapon.

Iran is demanding the removal of international sanctions, the release of billions ‌of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its control of the waterway.