US Strikes Iran After Helicopter Downed, Testing Peace Talks

(Bloomberg) — US forces carried out strikes against Iran hours after President Donald Trump blamed Tehran for shooting down an American military helicopter off the coast of Oman.

Most Read from Bloomberg

US Central Command said its forces “struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions” from fighter jets, adding that the operation had been completed. Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that several explosions were heard on Qeshm Island, in the Bandar Abbas region of southern Iran, as well as along the southern coast.

Centcom described the operation as a “proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”

The episode highlights the fragility of the ceasefire that took effect in early April and threatens a peace accord Trump has said for weeks was close to completion. The calibrated language suggested Washington was seeking to contain the confrontation rather than resume full-scale hostilities.

Iran’s joint military command said it had targeted “several US bases in the region.” The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched a drone strike targeting the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain early Wednesday, state-run IRIB News reported, while Fars and Iranian state TV said the country had also attacked US military facilities in Jordan and Kuwait.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X that the country “will leave no attack or threat unanswered.” Meanwhile, Centcom said US forces “remain vigilant and postured to defend against unjustified Iranian aggression.”

ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl said he was on the phone with Trump when the strikes were announced and that the president described them as a response to the helicopter attack. “I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that’s what this one is,” Trump said, according to Karl.

Iran’s state-run IRIB said two water-storage tanks in Sirik, in Hormozgan province, were hit, cutting off drinking water supplies.

Both pilots in the Apache helicopter were rescued when their aircraft was struck while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. A US official, who asked not to be named because an inquiry is ongoing, said initial indications show that the helicopter crashed after a collision with a Shahed drone and that Centcom is assessing whether it was intentional.

Iran hasn’t acknowledged shooting down the helicopter, though Foreign Minister Araghchi had said in a statement that “foreign forces in proximity to our territory are at constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents, or potentially being caught in crossfire.”

Oil climbed as tensions ratcheted up. Brent crude rose as much as 1.3% to trade near $93 a barrel. Markets remained relatively stable, with US stock-index futures trading 0.3% lower.

Trump has repeated claims that a deal to resolve the conflict was close, even as a renewed outbreak of fighting between Israel and Iran raised fears the conflict was escalating again. On Monday, Iran and Israel agreed to halt strikes on each other following a flare-up that saw both sides launch waves of ballistic missiles.

Mediation efforts between the US and Iran remain intense, with Pakistani-led intermediaries continuing discussions with both sides and talks expected to continue this week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump’s diplomatic tack is troubling Israel, which isn’t part of the negotiations and worries that a deal may leave Iran with the means to pose a threat in the future.

“We need to ensure that Iran comes out of this confrontation unable to reconstitute its own capabilities, as well as those of its proxies,“ said Orit Strock, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, referring to groups like Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Interviewed on Israel’s Army Radio, she voiced hope that Tehran would not secure a windfall in sanctions relief.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement that Israel would hold fire on Iran for now but would respond if attacked again. Even so, Israel signaled it would maintain pressure on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning residents of Tyre to evacuate ahead of a possible operation and indicating strikes could continue.

Iran also announced an end to its military operations against Israel. But its central military command warned that if Israel continued to attack, including in southern Lebanon, “much harsher and more crushing actions than before will be on the way,” the semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing a statement.

Kuwait has offered to sell its crude to refiners in Asia for the first time since the war began, adding to signs that energy and shipping flows through the Persian Gulf are gradually recovering despite Tehran’s threats to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Commercial vessels have begun returning to the waterway, though some continue to sail with their transponders switched off.

Offering another potential front of escalation, the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen said they had launched a missile barrage on Israel and would be imposing a “complete and total ban on maritime navigation for the Israeli enemy in the Red Sea,” according to a statement on their Telegram channel on Monday.

–With assistance from Devika Krishna Kumar, Eltaf Najafizada, John Harney, Derek Wallbank, Tony Capaccio and Meghashyam Mali.

(Updates with Iran retaliatory strikes in fifth paragraph.)