US ‘must’ respond: Trump confirms Iran shot down Army's Apache helicopter over Strait of Hormuz

US President Donald Trump confirmed on Tuesday that Iranians shot down the US Army's Apache helicopter while it was patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump also said that the US “must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

“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,” Trump wrote on TRUTH post on Tuesday.

He said there were two pilots involved and “both are safe and uninjured”.

“Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he added in the post.

According to the Associated Press, a drone boat rescued two Army aviators who were aboard the Apache attack helicopter when it went down near the waterway that Iran has effectively closed during its war with the US and Israel.

The Apache helicopter is the second crewed aircraft that Washington has confirmed was shot down by Iran during the Middle East war, following the loss of an F-15 fighter plane in April.

The downing and the prospect of a US response pose the latest in a series of threats to a shaky ceasefire that has been in place since April 8, as the United States and Iran struggle to negotiate an end to the war.

The Apache is an attack helicopter with a crew of two that is armed with a 30mm chain gun and can carry various other weapons including Hellfire missiles.

US Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for US forces in the Middle East, said earlier that two Apache crew members "were rescued by American forces after their helicopter went down near the coast of Oman."

"The Soldiers were safely rescued within approximately two hours and are in stable condition," CENTCOM said in a post on X.

The command also said a naval surface drone helped rescue the downed helicopter's crew.

Uncertainty over end of Iran war

Trump's latest remarks threw into deeper uncertainty the prospects for a truce announced on April 8 in the war in the Gulf.

The helicopter went down as the Middle East was still reeling after Iran and Israel exchanged fire the previous day in the biggest blow yet to the strained ceasefire in the Iran war.

On Monday, Israel and Iran said they would halt attacks on each other after an appeal by Trump to end their first direct exchanges of fire since April, but Tehran warned it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to attack its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Monday's flare-up added further strain to efforts to broker a peace deal to end the wider Middle East war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Before Trump accused Iran of downing the US helicopter, he had expressed renewed optimism over negotiations with Iran.

“We have a good chance” of signing a deal in “two or three days," Trump said. But he didn’t provide any details on why there was reason for new optimism. In the two months since the U.S. and Iran agreed to an initial ceasefire, Trump has repeatedly predicted that a deal is near.

“We’re very close to having a very, very good, strong, powerful deal,” the president said. “If we go and bomb — which we could do very easily if we want, and we spend another two or three weeks bombing — they’ll have nothing left whatsoever. But you won’t have the strait open for months.”

He added: “If we do the bombing, you know, a lot of people are going to be killed. Who wants to do that? I don’t.”

Mediators, led predominantly by Pakistan, have been trying for weeks to get a deal across the line. However, both Iran and the US have taken hard-line positions.

(With inputs from AFP, AP, Reuters)