The US launched military strikes on Iranian targets after President Donald Trump accused Tehran of shooting down an American Apache helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz, marking a serious escalation in the ongoing hostilities between the two sides.
According to the US military, the operation was a "proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression." A US official told Reuters that the Apache helicopter was brought down by an Iranian one-way attack drone. Trump said the two US pilots aboard survived the incident without injuries but vowed that Washington would respond.
As the operation unfolded, a US official told Axios that American forces targeted several Iranian air defense and radar systems around the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes were described by US Central Command as "self-defense" actions in response to the helicopter's downing.
The US military said CENTCOM forces struck Iranian air defense systems, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz. It added that US forces have completed their strikes against Iran.
Explosions were reported across parts of southern Iran early Wednesday. Iran's Fars news agency said blasts were heard in eastern areas of Hormozgan province, while Mehr news agency reported explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas. Iranian state media also said a projectile impact had been confirmed in Sirik and reported that Qeshm Island had come under attack.
The reports suggested that the US operation extended across multiple locations near the strategic waterway, through which a significant portion of the world's oil shipments passes.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi did not directly address the helicopter incident but warned that foreign military forces operating near Iran faced constant risks from accidents, miscalculations or being caught in crossfire.
"To reduce risk, the best solution is for them to leave," Araqchi said in a social media post.
After the US strikes, Abbas Araghchi warned the United States against further military action, saying that despite what he described as US "defeats on the battlefield," Washington had chosen to test Iran's resolve. He said Iran's armed forces would leave "no attack or threat unanswered" and urged foreign forces to leave the region if they wanted to remain safe. Araghchi also invoked the history of the Persian Gulf, saying it contains many examples of the "dire fates of intruding outsiders," in a clear warning following US strikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they targeted the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain with drones in retaliation for US strikes on locations in southern Iran earlier on Wednesday, according to state media reports. The Guards said clashes were ongoing and warned of a "more severe response" if what they described as continued US aggression persisted. They also said the US strikes damaged a telecommunications tower and two water tanks in the Iranian port town of Sirik.
Iran's state media, before the US strikes, quoted a military source as saying that no offensive Iranian air operations had been conducted in the Strait of Hormuz during the previous 24 hours. The source also warned that Iran would deliver a "decisive response" if it faced renewed hostility linked to the helicopter incident.
The exchange marks one of the most serious direct confrontations between the United States and Iran in recent years, raising fears of a broader conflict in the Gulf and increasing concerns over regional security and global energy supplies.
Source: India Today
