TRUMP: ‘IRAN WILL HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE’: Over a period of about four hours, beginning at 5 p.m. Washington time, U.S. warplanes bombed Iranian air defenses, ground-control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz in response to Monday’s downing of a U.S. Apache attack helicopter, in which two Army pilots were subsequently safely rescued by a sea drone.After initially telling the Wall Street Journal the incident was “no big deal,” and earlier urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from retaliating to Iranian attacks over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that “the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”“U.S. Central Command forces completed self-defense strikes against Iran, June 9, at the Commander in Chief’s direction,” CENTCOM said in a statement, calling the action “a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”
Trump’s change of heart reportedly came on the advice of War Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Central Commander Adm. Brad Cooper.
US SAYS IT HAS COMPLETED STRIKES ON IRAN IN RESPONSE TO APACHE SHOOTDOWN
A HISTORY-MAKING RESCUE: In announcing the Monday rescue of the two downed pilots, the day after the shootdown, the U.S. Central Command gave only the sparest details of the operation, noting the soldiers “were safely rescued within approximately two hours and are in stable condition.”
