“I believe that the response must be very firm, very powerful, and that is precisely the case,” announced US President Donald Trump at ABC news after an Apache attack helicopter was shot down. And almost at the same time the US Central Command announced the start of the offensive in Iran. A retaliation for the destruction of the aircraft. But the Pasdaran responded to the attacks with equal force.
The case of the Apache helicopter
“I was just informed by our military that the Iranians shot down one of our Apache helicopters last night. The two pilots aboard are safe and uninjured. Nonetheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” Trump wrote in Truth. Only a few details are known about the episode.
The helicopter was on a patrol mission in the Strait of Hormuz when it was reportedly hit. It is not yet known from what, but for Washington, Tehran is responsible for the shooting down. The military managed to land the Apache and were finally rescued by a naval drone.
US attacks
It was 11pm Italian time on 9 June when the United States resumed bombing Iran: “The mission is a proportionate response to unjustified Iranian aggression”, the US Central Command wrote on X. The operations were concluded four hours later: “The forces hit Iranian air defenses, ground control stations and surveillance radar locations near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions launched by US Air Force and Navy fighters,” the local military account reported.
Several explosions were heard in Jask, in the Gulf of Oman, which hosts an Iranian naval base, others were spotted in the port city of Bandar Abbas.
The Iranian response
Initially, the Pasdaran social media account had reported the Iranian negotiators’ attempts to block the Revolutionary Guards’ retaliation: “The Supreme National Security Council agreed to the request of the negotiating team and prevented the military response to the enemy.” However, the first attacks were announced immediately afterwards.
Iran would have launched missiles and drones against the American Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, the American base of Al-Azraq in Jordan, other targets in Kuwait. Jordan said it shot down five missiles fired from Tehran at an area hosting a U.S. forces air base. Iran said it had targeted the Muwaffaq Salti site which hosts American F-35 fighter jets and other aircraft. There are no confirmations of injuries or damage.
In the same hours, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi wrote on
Around 4 am Italian, the Pasdaran, through the agency Tasnimannounced that they had concluded their operations: “Following the successful operation conducted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, which struck 21 targets at US air and naval bases in the region and shot down an MQ9 drone over Jam County, and in response to continued enemy aggression, the retaliatory operation has been completed.”