U.S. Strikes Iranian Military Facilities After Drone Takes Down Apache Helicopter

The war in Iran appears to be escalating again.

U.S. forces hit military targets in Iran yesterday to retaliate for Iran’s downing of a U.S Army Apache helicopter. The chopper was flying near the Strait of Hormuz and was hit by an Iranian drone.

President Donald Trump ordered the retaliatory strike, which U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said was “proportional” and hit military targets. 

Also, Iran reported today that U.S. airstrikes destroyed water supplies for 20,000 people near the Strait of Hormuz. Video going viral online showed a destroyed concrete structure. U.S. Central Command did not respond to an inquiry about the Iranian allegations from The New York Times.

Retaliation

After the Apache AH-64 went down in the strait, Trump said retaliation was ahead, saying on Truth Social:

I 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.

There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack. 

U.S. forces struck yesterday, CENTCOM announced. Navy and Air Force fighter jets hit “Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions” in “a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”

Iran then hit back with “drone strikes against the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, where the Bahrain government reported that warning sirens had been activated,” the Times reported:

Iran also said it had launched 21 attacks on U.S. bases in the region, including in Jordan, but U.S. Central Command said that was not the case.

A U.S. official said Iran launched multiple missiles and drones at U.S. bases in the Middle East, and nearly all were intercepted, according to initial American assessments. There were no reports of American casualties, and no reports as yet of damage to U.S. bases in the region from the Iranian attacks, the official said.

Drone Downs Apache

Citing a U.S. official, the Times reported that “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.”

Another official told the newspaper that the two crewmen, a pilot and a gunner, were “lucky” to survive because the aircraft does not have ejection seats.

In a separate report, the Times explained that a U.S. Navy Corsair surface drone picked up the two pilots, the first such rescue.

Operated remotely, “the 24-foot-long Corsair, built by the company Saronic Technologies, runs on diesel fuel and can travel at speeds of up to 35 knots. The vessel can carry a load of up to 1,000 pounds and has a range of more than 1,000 nautical miles,” the Times reported. The drone took the crewmen to a safe location, where a helicopter picked them up.

Apaches are patrolling the strait and surrounding waters, and have 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 Times continued:

The military has also used armed MQ-9 Reaper drones and F/A-18 and F-35 warplanes to challenge Iran’s control of the strait, which it has effectively closed.

Iran has shot down about 30 unmanned Reaper drones, and a handful of U.S. fighter jets have been lost to hostile and friendly fire since the war started on Feb. 28. In April, 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.

Iran took out the Apache, cost around $52 million, despite repeated assurances by Trump that Iran is on its knees militarily.

This morning, Trump said it again, and said Iran has blown the chance to negotiate a peace deal.

“Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess,” he averred on Truth Social:

Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore — They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!

Water Supplies Hit?

Iran claimed today that American air strikes hit two water reservoirs in Hormozgan province.

“Video published by IRIB, the state broadcaster, and verified by The New York Times, showed a damaged concrete structure with a collapsed roof in Sirik county in Hormozgan province, on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz,” the newspaper reported:

IRIB said that the facility was a water tank. The Times could not independently verify that claim or what caused the damage. …

The two water tanks had a combined capacity of 2.5 million liters, Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, the chief executive of the province’s water company, said in a statement published on its website, adding that they were damaged by missiles.

The water company said that the damage took both facilities out of service, cutting off water for 20,000 people in Kuhestak and 10 other villages in the district of Bemani.

Temperatures in the province, which gets only 4 to 6.7 inches of rain annually, can hit 120 degrees.

Tomorrow the temperature is expected to hit 100 degrees, with a low of 87.