Tensions Skyrocket: Was the US Helicopter Downed by Iran?
Iran and the United States have engaged in the biggest exchange of fire during a two-month-old truce, following the crash of a U.S. helicopter and questions over whether it had been deliberately targeted by Tehran. The events threaten to escalate tensions and risk chances of a ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised was imminent, saying Wednesday that Tehran had taken too long to negotiate a deal and would now “have to pay the price."Hostilities spread across the region on Wednesday, with the U.S. launching strikes on Iran in response to the collision of the U.S. Apache helicopter with an Iranian drone, for which Trump said Iran was culpable, although it is not clear whether it was intentional. Tehran has denied deliberately targeting the aircraft. Iran expert Hamidreza Azizi, a research fellow at the German think tank SWP Berlin, told Newsweek that regardless of how much truth there is in Iran's claims, its statement "signals they don't want this to become an excuse for a new round of intensified conflict."Iran, in turn, launched retaliatory drone attacks against American bases in the region, in which the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain was targeted, and Jordan also issued air raid alerts. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that no American strikes would go “unanswered.” U.S. Marines fly an AH-64 Apache helicopter over San Clemente Island, California, on April 29, 2018. | Smith Collection/Gado/Getty ImagesU.S. and Iran in Tit-for-Tat Retaliation The U.S. military said it conducted three waves of attacks, targeting Iranian air defenses and radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz, in which Air Force and Navy jet fighters dropped precision munitions on targets, which included ground control stations. “The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters,” US CENTCOM said in a statement. Iran acknowledged strikes by Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island, but gave no further details about damage. Azizi said that the U.S. response was likely to reaffirm its own red line and not allow Iran to change the equation around the strait, nor allow a precedent of targeting U.S. aircraft. "What is clear is that neither the United States nor Iran has any interest at this stage to return to a full-scale war," he said.In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it launched a drone attack on the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and video posted on social media purported to show the strikes. Other parts of the region were on high alert Wednesday, with Kuwait saying it was intercepting incoming fire and Jordan saying it had downed five missiles, which Tehran said it had launched at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base that has hosted American F-35 fighter jets and other aircraft. Trump said on Truth Social that Iran had taken "too long to negotiate a deal" and so would now “have to pay the price," without specifying further.Azizi said hard-liners in the Iranian regime see the recent exchange as part of a continuous pattern by the U.S. to erode Iran's dominance over the Strait of Hormuz, resorting to whatever justification they can find to target Iran's defensive and offensive infrastructure. “The longer this takes, the more risks there are of unwanted escalation and the return to full scale war,” Azizi added. Was the Downed Helicopter a Mistake? A U.S. Army AH-64 Apache gunship was struck by an Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) near the coast of Oman on Monday, with one American source telling CNN that a Shahed drone was involved. U.S. CENTCOM said a U.S. Navy Corsair unmanned surface vessel (USV) rescued the two crew members within two hours of the incident. Trump accused Iranian air defenses of downing the helicopter as it was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.Iran has not claimed responsibility, and Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi denied Iranian involvement to Al Jazeera on Tuesday. Other messaging from Tehran suggested that the helicopter was not deliberately hit, although Iran has been firing drones at commercial vessels working with the U.S. to transit the critical waterway under blockade. Araghchi said in an X post on Tuesday that “foreign forces in proximity to our territory are at constant risk on account of their own human errors,” adding, “to reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave.” Trump said there must be a U.S. response, although it was reported he was reluctant to retaliate. He told The Wall Street Journal the incident “wasn’t a big deal," and that the pilots were not seriously injured. However, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine recommended military action, which changed Trump’s mind, according to unnamed American officials cited by the WSJ. This followed Hegseth and Caine giving Trump updated information about the Iranian Shahed drone hitting the U.S. helicopter, according to the paper. "These incidents, regardless of how intentional they are, can lead to unwanted escalation," said Azizi.In its update on Tuesday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Iran likely targeted the Apache due to the role the aircraft can play in air defense against Iranian drones over the strait or in intercepting Iranian fast attack craft.US Apache gunships have engaged Iranian fast attack craft during Project Freedom to escort vessels through the strait, and Emirati Apache gunships have also intercepted incoming Iranian drones."The Iranian attack on the US Apache helicopter comes amid repeated Iranian efforts to use coercive measures, including force, in and around the Strait of Hormuz to force vessels to transit through Iran’s illegal traffic separation scheme," the ISW said.In another post on Wednesday, Trump took aim at the media for not reporting how effective the U.S. blockade in place since April, stopping ships from entering and exiting Iranian ports, adding "NOTHING GETS THROUGH unless we want it to."
