US Launches 'Proportional' Strikes on Iran Targets

American warplanes have hit targets in Iran, a day after a US Army Apache helicopter was brought down near the Strait of Hormuz. On X, US Central Command called the Tuesday strikes, launched at 5pm Eastern, "a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression." Central Command said the strikes were launched at President Trump's direction in response to the downing of the helicopter. Earlier Tuesday, Trump declared that the US "must, of necessity, respond to this attack."

• Trump said the helicopter had been shot down, though sources tell the AP and the Wall Street Journal that it crashed after colliding with an Iranian one-way Shahed drone. It's not clear whether the downing was intentional. The pilot and gunner were rescued within around two hours.

Iranian state TV reported explosions and air-raid sirens in several Persian Gulf coastal locations, including the port of Bandar Abbas and the island of Qeshm, but offered few specifics, the New York Times reports. An Iranian military official insisted the country had carried out no operations near the strait in the past 24 hours and warned that any follow-up "enemy aggression under the pretext of the crash" would draw a firm response. After the strikes, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Iran had launched missiles and drones at US targets, CNN reports.