President Trump on Tuesday accused Iran of shooting down an Army attack helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz and promised to retaliate, in the latest sign that a fragile cease-fire was failing to quell the war and open a path to a durable peace.
In a social media post, Mr. Trump said he had been informed by the military that Iranian forces had downed the Apache helicopter on Monday night. Both crew members, the pilot and gunner, were rescued within two hours and were in stable condition, the U.S. military said.
“Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” Mr. Trump wrote. He did not elaborate.
His statement came after a flare-up in attacks between Iran and Israel on Sunday and Monday threatened to push the Middle East back into a wider war.
Iran did not admit or deny downing the Apache helicopter. But the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on social media that forces operating close to Iran were at “constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents, or potentially being caught in crossfire.”
“To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave,” he wrote. “We prefer language of diplomacy but speak other languages too.”
The threat of further U.S. attacks on Iran came as Israeli forces pounded southern Lebanon as they fought Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, despite a new U.S.-brokered cease-fire in that country.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the latest Israeli airstrikes had killed at least eight people and wounded dozens more in Tyre, one of southern Lebanon’s largest cities and a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its ancient Roman ruins.
The fighting on multiple fronts in recent days has underscored how difficult the intertwined conflicts in the region are to control, notwithstanding Mr. Trump’s repeated claims that the United States and Iran are close to a deal to end the war.
A cease-fire in April that was supposed to stop the fighting has only slowed the pace of attacks, and sporadic negotiations mediated by Pakistan, Qatar and others have not led to an agreement that would end the war with Iran launched by the United States and Israel in late February, resolve the fate of Tehran’s nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the choke point for crude oil and natural gas that Iran has effectively blockaded.
On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said in a statement that the Army helicopter “went down near the coast of Oman while patrolling regional waters.”
An Iranian Shahed attack drone downed the helicopter, a U.S. official who spoke anonymously to discuss operational matters said on Tuesday, confirming a report by Axios.
The U.S. Navy deployed a remotely piloted aquatic drone to rescue the two downed crew members, Capt. Tim Hawkins, a Central Command spokesman, said in a text message on Tuesday.
“The drone picked them up and transported them to another location on the water where they were then hoisted up to a helicopter for further transport,” Captain Hawkins said.
The AH-64 Apache gunship, armed with Hellfire missiles, is among the most fearsome aircraft operating in the region. The aircraft have been patrolling the Strait of Hormuz in part to deter small-boat attacks and to shoot down Iranian drones. They have also been pushing closer to Iranian territory — including Iranian-controlled islands in the strait and the Persian Gulf — as part of the U.S. military’s aggressive posture in the region.
The military has also used armed MQ-9 Reaper drones and F/A-18 and F-35 attack planes to challenge Iran’s control of the strait.
In response to Iran’s blockade, the U.S. military has since April 13 enforced a blockade on ships entering and leaving Iranian ports. It has turned away 134 vessels and disabled seven others that were violating the blockade, U.S. Central Command said.
The latest was a Palau-flagged oil tanker that was sailing in international waters in the Gulf of Oman toward Iran on Monday. An F/A-18 Super Hornet launched from the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln fired into the tanker’s engineering and steering spaces, stopping the ship after, Central Command said, it ignored American warnings to turn back.
In April, before the cease-fire, Iran shot down an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet over its territory, prompting the two crew members to eject from their stricken aircraft. Both were rescued.
The fighting in the Persian Gulf has continued in tandem with the war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel, complicating the push for a peace deal.
Iran has insisted that any peace agreement apply to Lebanon. Israel has rejected that condition, saying it must continue striking Hezbollah in an effort to stop the group from firing rockets and drones into Israel.
Hezbollah, for its part, has rejected the latest U.S.-brokered cease-fire agreement with Israel, saying its terms were tantamount to surrender. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have continued to trade attacks. The Lebanese government has little leverage over the militant group.
Hours before the latest strikes, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the entire city of Tyre, which was home to roughly 100,000 people before the latest war between Hezbollah and Israel erupted in March.
For the first time, the warning included the port city’s Christian quarter, underscoring how Israel’s offensive has been widening. As people fled Tyre, the city’s Christian quarter became one of its last relatively populated enclaves.
The Israeli military said last week that it had “identified activity by dozens of Hezbollah operatives inside the Christian neighborhood,” and called on residents “to demand the removal of the organization’s operatives from your areas.” It provided no evidence for its claim.
Israeli strikes on Tuesday also targeted other towns and villages across southern Lebanon, including areas not covered by the evacuation warnings, according to Lebanon’s state-run news agency.
More than 3,600 people have been killed and one million people displaced by the war in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese authorities. Thirty people have been killed in Israel, officials there have said.
After an Israeli strike near the Lebanese capital, Beirut, set off attacks between Israel and Iran on Sunday and Monday, both countries indicated that they would hold off on further hostilities. But the Iranian military warned on Monday that it would attack Israel again if it resumed its “aggression and hostile acts,” including in southern Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel dismissed that threat and said that while Iran and Hezbollah had been weakened, “our battle against them is still not finished.”
Reporting was contributed by Max Bearak, Gabby Sobelman, Hwaida Saad, Johnatan Reiss, Jonathan Swan and Leo Sands.
