The United States carried out airstrikes against several military targets in Iran on Tuesday, hours after President Trump vowed to retaliate for what he said was Iran\u2019s downing of a U.S. Army helicopter gunship patrolling near the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
In a statement<\/a>, Central Command said that the \u201cself-defense\u201d strikes carried out on Mr. Trump\u2019s order were \u201ca proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n Central Command did not identify the targets, but Iran\u2019s state television reported explosions and air defense sirens early Wednesday at several military installations, radars and artillery batteries along Iran\u2019s southern Persian Gulf coast, including Bandar Abbas, Qeshm and Sirak.<\/p>\n Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. Trump warned that strikes were coming after two aviators aboard the downed Apache helicopter were rescued.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d he wrote on social media. \u201cThere were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Trump did not say how the Iranians brought down the helicopter, but a U.S. official later said a one-way Iranian Shahed attack drone hit the Apache late Monday and caused it to plunge into the sea, confirming an earlier report by Axios<\/a>.<\/p>\n A second U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said that the two crew members were \u201clucky\u201d to have survived the crash. They were rescued by a remotely piloted Navy sea drone, in what is believed to be the first operation of its kind, military officials said.<\/p>\n After Mr. Trump vowed to retaliate, U.S. officials drew up plans for what they deemed a proportional response that would avoid derailing the tenuous cease-fire and upending fitful talks between Washington and Tehran to open the strait. The plans included options to strike the bases and sites in Iran that launched the drone that hit the helicopter. Officials said the intent was to respond but not escalate the situation.<\/p>\n Hostilities in the region had flared and then ebbed in recent days, as Israel and Iran exchanged military strikes before stepping back. In a sign of how precarious American officials viewed the security situation, one of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said military investigators were trying to determine whether in the congested air space off the Omani coast, the Iranian drone hit the Apache on purpose or in a reckless accident.<\/p>\n The military\u2019s Central Command confirmed in a statement<\/a> on Tuesday morning that an Apache helicopter gunship had gone down on Monday night while patrolling regional waters, and that the two crew members were safely recovered within about two hours of the crash. But Central Command did not say how the crash happened and said the incident was under investigation.<\/p>\n