The U.S. military carried out “proportional” retaliatory strikes against Iran on Tuesday, one day after Iranian forces shot down an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.“U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 p.m. ET today at the Commander in Chief’s direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.CENTCOM did not say what U.S. forces targeted in the retaliatory strikes. Now, eyes are on Iran to see if it retaliates, and possibly escalates, to the U.S.’s own retaliation.
President Donald Trump said the strikes are a “response to what they did with our helicopter last night, and I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that’s what this one is.”
“I think it’s very important to respond. They shot down a helicopter, and we are responding as we speak,” he told ABC’s Jonathan Karl.
The two pilots aboard the Apache helicopter are in stable condition. After they went down, they were rescued by a U.S. Navy Corsair unmanned surface vessel, or drone boat, which picked them up and took them nearby, where they were then hoisted up to a helicopter for further transport, a Central Command spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
