Iran downed US helicopter, we must react, says Trump
US President Donald Trump said Iran shot down a US Apache helicopter patrolling the Strait of Hormuz overnight and vowed to respond, deepening doubts about prospects for a ceasefire in the war in the Gulf declared in April.
“I have been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly advanced Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
He said the two US pilots involved were both safe and uninjured.
“Still, the United States must necessarily respond to this attack,” he added.
The incident adds further tension to efforts to broker a peace deal to end the broader Middle East war and reopen Hormuz, a vital conduit for international trade in energy and other commodities.
Making statements about the downing of the Apache early on Tuesday, Trump said that the two pilots were “fine” after their rescue, but did not make any comments about what caused the Apache to be shot down.
A US Navy surface drone found and rescued the two crew members, the US military told Reuters. U.S. Central Command said the AH-64 Apache crashed around 3 a.m. local time on Tuesday.
On Monday, Israel and Iran said they would stop attacks on each other after Trump called for an end to direct fire for the first time since April, but Tehran warned that hostilities would continue if Israel continued to attack its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Two Iranian air defense personnel killed in Israeli strikes in Tehran on Monday will be buried on Tuesday afternoon, the Iranian military said. No deaths were reported in Israel after Iran’s attacks.
In a parallel conflict, Israel struck the historic port city of Tire in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least eight people. It was the deadliest attack on the city since the conflict broke out in Lebanon in early March, when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in support of Tehran after Israel and the United States began a war against Iran.
Israel had issued an evacuation order for the city early Tuesday. Residents fled and civil defense teams moved elderly residents to temporary shelters, state media reported. Lebanon’s health ministry said eight victims were killed in a single attack in the eastern end of the city.
A video verified by Reuters showed debris strewn on the road at the scene of the attack.
Israel’s refusal to end its campaign in Lebanon, as Iran has demanded, has thwarted Trump’s efforts to extend the tenuous ceasefire in the broader US-Israeli war with Iran into a permanent solution.
Trump had previously told reporters that he might “have an idea” about reaching a deal with Iran within a few days, without going into detail. The Republican president, grappling with record-low approval ratings as November’s midterm elections approach, has hinted at an imminent deal with Tehran, but none has yet materialized.
US and Israeli officials said Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday.
In an interview with Axios, Trump said he warned the Israeli leader against returning to war with Iran: “I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful or you’re going to be on your own very soon.'”
However, Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said on Tuesday that Israel’s attack on Iran the day before was “preparation for a much more serious and heavy blow.”
“We are ready to go back and carry out another hard and deep attack against Iran,” he said during a visit to training exercises in northern Israel.
Tehran has long said any peace deal with Washington would depend in part on an end to fighting in Lebanon, which Israel occupied in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who crossed the border and opened fire in March.
