U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that new attacks are taking place in Iran in retaliation for the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter just 24 hours earlier.
“U.S. Central Command (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 U.S. Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” CENTCOM wrote in a post on X.
President Donald Trump said earlier Tuesday that the United States would “respond to this attack.”
“The Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured,” Trump said. “Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a post on X that the United States’ forces are putting themselves at risk by being in the region.
“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,” Araghchi wrote. “To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave. We prefer language of diplomacy but speak other languages too.”
In a separate statement on X, CENTCOM had said the soldiers had been rescued within around two hours of the incident and were in stable condition.
A U.S. official said that their injuries were not serious or believed to be life-threatening but that both required medical attention.
Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he didn’t consider troops in the region to be in danger.
“We have the best offense anyone’s ever seen. So I don’t consider it danger,” Trump said in the interview, adding he didn’t think he’d be sending troops back to the U.S. because they may still be needed. “But I think we’ll keep them there until such time as we have a completion.”
Speaking earlier Tuesday about a potential deal with Iran, Trump told reporters, “We’re in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal that will not allow in any way, shape or form nuclear weapons.”
“The strait will open up right away. It’ll open up immediately upon signing, which could be in two or three days,” he said, though he said that the deal could even be done “in one hour, if you want to know the truth.”
