A US Army Apache Gun Ship Helicopter was hit by an Iranian drone and went down….
The pilot and weapons operator went down in the Strait of Hormuz….
They where rescued by a new type US Navy drone boat called a Corsair…
The Guardian is reporting that President Trump was reluctant to escalate the situation, but was talked into launching some US Air Force and Navy retaliatory fighter jet attacks…
The situation remains static, with both sides on hold….
Report’s are that Israel told Trump there would be a hold on Lebanon and Gaza attacks…
Such a hold is seen as a political problem with Israeli PM Netanyahu , whose governing support is SOLIDLY behind continued attacks , irregardless of the American President’s wishes….
Stay tuned….
The United States and Iran exchanged attacks early Wednesday in the Middle East after the downing on Monday of a U.S. helicopter gunship near the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command later said that Air Force and Navy jets had struck Iranian air defenses, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz.
The scale of damage was not immediately clear. Iran’s state television said that explosions and air defense sirens were heard in several cities along Iran’s Persian Gulf coast, including the city of Sirik and the island of Qeshm.
Iran then said that it had launched drone strikes against the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, where the government reported that warning sirens had been activated. Iran also said it had launched 21 attacks on U.S. bases in the region, including in Jordan, but U.S. Central Command said that was not the case.
A U.S. official said Iran launched multiple missiles and drones at U.S. bases around the Middle East, and nearly all were intercepted, according to initial American assessments. There have been no reports of American casualties, and no reports as yet of damage to U.S. bases in the region from the Iranian attacks, the official said.
In a statement, Central Command called the U.S. strikes “self-defense” operations carried out on President Trump’s order, saying that they were “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.” Central Command said the airstrikes were launched at 5 p.m. Eastern time, or 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday in the Middle East.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump had blamed Iran for shooting down the aircraft. “The United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he said on social media.
After the U.S. strikes began, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in a social media post that his country’s armed forces would “leave no attack or threat unanswered.”
Mr. Trump did not offer any more details on the downing of the U.S. Army Apache helicopter. Iran did not take responsibility for the attack, and its state broadcaster, IRIB, quoted an unnamed military official who said the country had conducted no military operation over the strait in the prior 24 hours.
The U.S. and Iranian exchanges came after a deepening Israeli assault across southern Lebanon on Tuesday, including on the large city of Tyre, where at least eight people were reported to have been killed. Hostilities have flared in recent days after Israeli strikes on Lebanon prompted Iranian retaliatory strikes on Israel and waves of tit-for-tat strikes.
The latest attacks underlined how Lebanon has emerged as a major wedge issue in efforts to negotiate an end to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Iran had warned Israel that attacks on southern Lebanon would trigger another wave of retaliatory strikes. But Iran had not acted upon that threat when the wave of U.S. strikes began hitting its territory.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said the United States and Iran were nearing an agreement to end the war, resolve the fate of Iran’s nuclear weapons program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for oil and gas shipments.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
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Lebanon warnings: The Israeli military called on Tuesday for the evacuation of the entire city of Tyre, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon, including, for the first time in the war, the Christian quarter of the ancient port city. Read more ›
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Markets: The price of oil rose slightly in the afternoon after Mr. Trump threatened to retaliate against Iran for the downing of the helicopter. Still, prices were lower than they were two days ago, after an exchange of strikes between Israel and Iran. Read more ›
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Negotiations: The Trump administration’s negotiations with Tehran have focused on four major elements of a nuclear agreement that U.S. officials say would grind Iran’s program to a halt for 15 years or so. Read more ›
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ISW….Iran Update Special Report, June 9, 2026
- The Iranian regime is attempting to use calibrated force in an attempt to extract concessions from the United States without triggering a full-scale US response. Iran has likely designed this new approach based on an assessment that the United States does not want to return to war.
- Iran is using force against US forces near the Strait of Hormuz, likely in an effort to deter US forces from operating in the Strait of Hormuz for any reason. An Iranian drone downed a US Army AH-64 Apache gunship near the coast of Oman on June 8. This use of force is designed to achieve the Iranian war aim of asserting its control over the strait.
- US President Donald Trump emphasized that the United States must respond to the Iranian attack. ISW-CTP is monitoring reports of a “proportional” US response as of 5:50 PM ET on June 9. ISW-CTP will provide more details on the US response in its June 10 morning thread and evening update.
- The Houthis continue to threaten to restrict commercial shipping in the Bab el Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea, but they have not yet conducted attacks to realize these threats.
- Hezbollah and Iran appear not to have effectively deterred Israel from striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
As we wait to see whether this latest round of strikes between the US and Iran is at an end, we’re starting to get a better picture of what went on behind the scenes to get us to this point.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump was not convinced of the need to retaliate against Iran after the Apache Helicopter went down earlier on Tuesday. He spent much of the day playing down the incident, telling reporters that it wasn’t a big deal.
But according to the WSJ, his mind was changed after a briefing from defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Dan Caine.
The Associated Press has reported that the Apache helicopter that crashed went down after colliding with an Iranian drone.
It is not clear whether the collision was intentional, but US officials reportedly told the president that the attack merited a response nonetheless.
Trump would the go on to say that Iran shot down the helicopter, in a post on Truth Social, and declared that the US must “respond to this attack.” Hours later the US began the strikes on Iran.
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