{"id":153160,"date":"2026-06-10T01:20:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T01:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/153160\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T01:20:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T01:20:36","slug":"us-strikes-iran-after-trump-blames-tehran-for-downing-army-helicopter-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/153160\/","title":{"rendered":"US strikes Iran after Trump blames Tehran for downing Army helicopter"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near\u00a0the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>\u00a0that President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

U.S. Central Command said on social media that the strikes would be \u201ca proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.\u201d Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane that Iran has effectively closed during the war, before saying that the wave of American attacks in the south has \u201csubsided.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said earlier in a social media post that Iran had shot down the aircralft while it was on patrol over the strait and declared that the U.S. \u201cmust, of necessity, respond to this attack.\u201d Iran\u2019s top diplomat said foreign military forces near the country\u2019s territory \u201care at constant risk\u201d and later said after the strikes that Iran \u201cwill leave no attack or threat unanswered.\u201d<\/p>\n

The downing of the helicopter and the resulting strikes by the U.S. military further strained a two-month ceasefire a day after\u00a0Iran and Israel exchanged fire<\/a>\u00a0for the first time since the fragile truce took effect. Iranian state television said Tuesday that the Israeli attacks killed at least two members of the country\u2019s air-defense units.<\/p>\n

Since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28, the war has\u00a0shaken the global economy<\/a>, driven up energy prices around the world and made many basics,\u00a0including food<\/a>, more expensive.<\/p>\n

Officials have been unable to turn\u00a0the April ceasefire<\/a>\u00a0into a deal to permanently end the conflict, particularly as Israel intensifies and expands its military campaign in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

US helicopter collided with Iranian drone, official says<\/p>\n

The Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopter went down after colliding with an Iranian drone, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t clear whether the collision was intentional, and official statements only said the crash is under investigation. CNN, CBS News and other outlets earlier reported the collision.<\/p>\n

In the first known operation of its kind by the American military, a drone boat rescued two aviators at 3:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, about two hours after their aircraft went down during a patrol off the coast of Oman, U.S. Central Command said.<\/p>\n

Trump said both service members \u201care safe and uninjured.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. service members were spotted and picked up by a drone boat that took them to another location on the water, where they were picked up by a helicopter, said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command. He initially said the drone took the two to shore, and he did not elaborate on the updated timeline.<\/p>\n

It was the first known drone rescue at sea by the U.S. military, Hawkins said.<\/p>\n

AH-64 Apache helicopters have been a key asset for the American military as it enforces a blockade on Iranian crude oil shipments and tankers, seeking to pressure Tehran into a deal. The helicopters have also been used by the United Arab Emirates to shoot down Iranian drones.<\/p>\n

The drone used to perform the rescue was a 24-foot (7.3-meter) vessel called a Corsair, Hawkins said. It\u2019s manufactured by Saronic Technologies.<\/p>\n

The drone was assigned to the Navy\u2019s Task Force 59, established in 2021 as the Navy\u2019s first uncrewed and artificial intelligence unit that focuses on maritime security in the Middle East, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal.<\/p>\n

Soon after Trump made his accusation that Iran shot down the aircraft, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post that the strait is \u201cthousands of miles away from U.S. shores.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cForeign 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,\u201d Araghchi wrote. \u201cTo reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump insists an Iran deal is coming<\/p>\n

Before he accused Iran of downing the U.S. helicopter, Trump had expressed renewed optimism over negotiations with Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good chance\u201d of signing a deal in \u201ctwo or three days,\u201d Trump said late Monday. But he did not provide any details on why there was reason for new optimism. In the two months since the U.S. and Iran agreed to an initial ceasefire, Trump has repeatedly predicted that a deal is near.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very close to having a very, very good, strong, powerful deal,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n

Mediators, led predominantly by Pakistan, have been trying for weeks to get a deal across the line. However, both Iran and the U.S. have taken hard-line positions.<\/p>\n

The U.S. wants to see Iran give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be entombed in the aftermath of American airstrikes that happened during the 12-day war in 2025. But Iran is refusing that and demanding relief from sanctions. It also wants the release of frozen assets even before a final agreement is in place, something rejected by Trump.<\/p>\n

Before Trump\u2019s comments on negotiations, Qalibaf said Monday that Trump\u2019s remarks so far on a possible deal \u201ccontradicted the agreed-upon sections,\u201d showing that the U.S. is \u201cneither seeking a ceasefire nor dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The continued fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is still a top Iranian priority as well. Lebanon\u2019s army chief, Gen. Rodolphe Haykal, traveled to Pakistan on Tuesday. There, he met Pakistan\u2019s army chief,\u00a0Field Marshal Asim Munir<\/a>, who has been a key figure in the Iran-U.S. talks.<\/p>\n

Haykal\u2019s visit comes as Lebanon\u2019s government takes an increasingly hard line on Hezbollah but remains unable to disarm the powerful militia. Hezbollah thanked Iran on Tuesday for attacking Israel \u201cin defense of our Lebanese people,\u201d suggesting that Lebanon\u2019s government should take this opportunity to improve relations with Tehran.<\/p>\n

Israel issues a warning for Tyre, Lebanon<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for Lebanon\u2019s southern port city of Tyre, including the Christian quarter, which has so far been spared from airstrikes on the city.<\/p>\n

Last week, Israel warned the Christian neighborhoods in Tyre that it believed Hezbollah members were among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims fled to those areas as Israeli strikes hammered the Mediterranean coastal area over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

After last week\u2019s warning, the Lebanese army deployed to the Christian district of Tyre in an effort to prevent Israeli attacks there and to show that Hezbollah has no armed presence in the area. But Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military\u2019s\u00a0Arabic-language spokesperson<\/a>, posted on X on Monday that the Israeli military \u201cwill have to act against their terrorist activities in the neighborhood soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This version corrects that the rescue of the two aviators, not the helicopter crash, occurred at 3:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Superville and Toropin reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York, Will Weissert in Washington, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on Iran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[1725,7243,102,34,21383,101,392,10020,36],"class_list":["post-153160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-army","tag-helicopter","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-straight-of-hormuz","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-trump","tag-us-army","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116723189194902862","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}