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Helicopter Down, Strikes
The United States launched waves of attacks on Iran after President Donald Trump blamed Tehran for downing a U.S. Apache helicopter patrolling the Strait of Hormuz, with U.S. Central Command describing the strikes as “self-defense strikes” and “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched strikes on 21 targets at U.S. bases in the region, with one in Bahrain and the other in Jordan, while Kuwait’s army said it was also intercepting an attack.
The BBC reported that the two crew members survived and were rescued by an American sea drone, and that an unnamed U.S. official told CBS News it was not clear whether the Iranian drone had deliberately attacked.
The Washington Post said the U.S. military completed “self-defense strikes” at Trump’s direction, hitting Iranian air defense sites, ground-control stations and surveillance radar near the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil flows from the Middle East.
In response to the renewed exchange, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that the country “will leave no attack or threat unanswered” and told the U.S. to “Leave our region if you want to be safe.”
Threats and Negotiations
Trump told reporters at the White House, “We’re going to hit them again hard today,” after the U.S. said it struck Iranian military sites, and he urged Iran to sign a deal to end the war.
AP said Trump warned that Tehran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations, as the escalation threatened to derail efforts to end the war and came hours after Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan—hosting U.S. troops—came under Iranian fire.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqai told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. was “damaging this diplomatic process through the contradictory messages it sends”.
NBC News reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “CENTCOM, Central Command will be busy tonight” because President Trump said the U.S. would be “hitting Iran hard” and “we will be,” adding that the U.S. would hit “on the targets that improve the environment for us to operate in”.
Al Jazeera quoted Iranian Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf saying Trump’s remarks “contradicted the agreed-upon sections,” showing that the U.S. was “neither seeking a ceasefire nor dialogue.”
Shipping, Sanctions, Fallout
NBC News said the U.S. military has been helping commercial ships get through the Strait of Hormuz, with a U.S. official saying it had supported moving more than 100 million barrels of oil through the strait and out.
AP reported that the U.S. military fired “precision munitions” into the engine room of the Palau-flagged vessel M/T Settebello as it attempted to breach the naval blockade with a shipment of Iranian oil, and said India’s foreign ministry stated that three Indian sailors were missing while 21 others were rescued.
NBC News also said the State Department announced sanctions on 13 people and entities in Iran, Belarus and China, including Hong Kong, accused of seeking to source and buy weapons, including man-portable air-defense systems, on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Fox News reported that a senior U.S. official told it that 20 targets inside Iran were hit Tuesday night, while CENTCOM said the operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.
In Sirik, Iran said U.S. strikes hit two water reservoirs and temporarily cut off water to thousands of people, while the U.S. Central Command had no immediate comment, and Iran later claimed attacks in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.
