ByDANYA SAPERSTEIN 
Updated: 

The United States launched strikes against Iran on Tuesday evening, following the downing of a US Army Apache helicopter, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Tuesday.

The strikes were described by CENTCOM as “self-defense strikes” and as “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”

 

Several hours after the first round of strikes, explosions were heard in the Iranian cities of Jask and Bandar Abbas, according to Iranian state-sponsored media outlet Mehr news agency, citing local residents’ reports. A short time after that, explosions were reportedly heard in Qeshm Island in southern Iran, in what various media outlets referred to as a third round of strikes.

According to CENTCOM, the US struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precise munitions from US Air Force and Navy fighter jets.

US ‘must respond’ to Iran helicopter attack 

Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump announced that the US “must respond” to Iran’s downing of the helicopter.

“Last night, the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump described in a post on Truth Social. “The United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

Axios Global Affairs Correspondent Barak Ravid cited a US official as saying that forces attacked several Iranian air defense systems and radar systems around the Strait of Hormuz.

A US official told CNN that the US does not believe the strikes will impede negotiations to end the war and were intended as a warning shot, the network reported.

However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote that Iranian forces would “leave no attack or threat unanswered,” in a post on X.

“Leave our region if you want to be safe,” Araghchi added.

 

Iran denies attacking helicopter

Multiple Iranian officials have disputed that Iran targeted the helicopter. The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister told Qatari state-run Al Jazeera that Iran was not behind the attack. Additionally, Iranian state media cited an “informed military source” as saying that no air offensive military operations have been carried out in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.

The source added that if the enemy attacks under the pretext of downing a military helicopter, it will face a “decisive response,” Iran International cited Iranian media as reporting.

Goldie Katz and Reuters contributed to this report.