US launches new strikes on Iran after helicopter downed

The United States launched strikes against Iran on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said Tehran had shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz, deepening doubts over a potential peace deal and further straining a fragile ceasefire.

The U.S. military said on ‌X it had targeted Iranian air defense, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz. 

U.S. Central Command described the operation as a “proportional response” to recent attacks on U.S. forces and commercial shipping.
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"I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that's what this one is," Trump told ABC News.

The strikes began at 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT), and Central Command posted just before 9 p.m. ET that they had ended.

Iran's state media reported that Qeshm island and the port city of Sirik in the Strait of Hormuz were attacked.

Sounds of explosions were heard in nearby Bandar Abbas, and later in the vicinity of Jask county, near the entrance to the strait, Iranian media reported, citing local sources and residents.

Some U.S. bases in the region were targeted in response to the strikes, Iranian media cited the country's top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya, as saying.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they attacked the ⁠U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain with drones and threatened "more severe responses" if hostilities continued, according to media.

Reuters