President Donald Trump said that the U.S. “must” respond after Iran downed an Apache helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz.
“I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The U.S. “must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he added.
The remarks on Tuesday evening sharply contrast with the president’s earlier statements that the U.S. was nearing a deal with the Mullah regime.
On Monday night, Iranian forces shot down an AH-64 Apache helicopter while it was patrolling off the coast of Oman. The two pilots onboard the helicopter were rescued by a U.S. sea drone. The rescued crew members were “safe and uninjured,” President Trump assured.
“The two crew members were rescued by a sea drone in the first such operation ever carried out by the U.S. military,” CBS News reported. “The surface drone rescued the soldiers and transported them to another location on the water where they were then hoisted up to a helicopter for further transport, according to a U.S. official.”
The Associated Press reported:
President Donald Trump blamed Iran on Tuesday for shooting down a U.S. Army helicopter close to the Strait of Hormuz and said the United States must respond. Iran’s top diplomat said foreign military forces near the country’s territory “are at constant risk.”In the first known operation of its kind by the American military, a drone boat rescued the two aviators who were aboard the Apache attack helicopter when it went down near the critical shipping lane that Iran has effectively closed during its war with the U.S. and Israel. (…)The downing of the helicopter further strained a two-month ceasefire a day after Iran and Israel exchanged fire for 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’s air-defense units.
Following President Trump remarks, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the military was conducting self-defense strikes against Iran.
The strikes were under President’s “direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter,” Centcom said.
After targeting a U.S. Army helicopter, the Iranian regime issued a not-so-veiled threat to American service members deployed in the Middle East. “Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned that foreign military forces operating near Iranian territory were putting themselves at risk and suggested the safest course would be for them to leave,” UK’s Daily Telegraph reported.
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