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The United States and Iran have exchanged fresh strikes after the downing of a US helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.
Getting into it: The US launched waves of attacks late Tuesday, which Central Command described as “self-defense” operations and “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” targeting Iranian air defenses, radar and ground-control sites near the strait. Iranian state media reported explosions on Qeshm Island and in the coastal cities of Sirik, Jask and Bandar Abbas.
Iran answered with a barrage of its own, as the Revolutionary Guards fired missiles and drones at US bases across the Gulf, striking at the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and claiming 21 targets including in Jordan and Kuwait, a count Central Command disputed. Jordan said it intercepted five missiles aimed at a base that serves as a key US hub, and the US reported that nearly all the projectiles were intercepted with no American casualties. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi vowed Iranian forces “will leave no attack or threat unanswered” and warned foreign troops to leave the region.
The trigger was the downing of a US Apache helicopter near the strait, which Trump blamed on Iran, declaring that the US “must, of necessity, respond,” while both crew members were rescued uninjured by an unmanned drone boat in what the military called a first-of-its-kind operation.
The cause of the crash remains murky. The US military believes an Iranian Shahed attack drone brought the helicopter down, and a US official said investigators concluded an Iranian drone struck it, though they had not established whether the collision was intentional. Iran, for its part, has not claimed responsibility, with state media saying it had run no operations near the strait over the previous day and the Foreign Ministry calling the helicopter a “pretext” for the American attack.
This all comes as peace negotiations remain stuck despite Trump’s repeated claims a deal is only days away, with Pakistan-led mediators making little headway against entrenched positions, the US demanding Iran surrender its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and Iran insisting on sanctions relief and the unfreezing of its assets before any agreement.
