The US and Iran exchanged fire on Wednesday after President Donald Trump blamed Tehran for shooting down an American military helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz, leading to a rapid escalation across the Middle East.
Mr Trump reacted furiously on Truth Social, accusing Tehran of dragging out ceasefire negotiations and warning that its actions would carry consequences.
"They have been completely defeated," he wrote. "Iran is all talk and no action. The bully of the Middle East is dead! They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!"
It is one of the most serious flare-ups in violence since a fragile ceasefire took effect on April 8. The war began on February 28 with Israeli and American strikes across Iran that killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other senior officials. Yet the exchanges have increasingly followed a familiar pattern: limited, calibrated strikes aimed less at securing a battlefield victory than at shaping the back-channel diplomacy both sides acknowledge is continuing.
Mr Trump said he had been informed that Iran shot down a US Army AH-64 Apache helicopter during a patrol. “There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the US must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he said.
The US Central Command said American air force and navy fighter jets carried out "self-defence" strikes against Iranian air defence systems, radar sites and ground control stations near the strait. The US Central Command described the strikes as a "proportional response" – language that reflected Washington's desire to signal its resolve without widening the conflict, amid waning domestic support for Mr Trump and the political sensitivity of hosting the Fifa World Cup, which kicks off this week.
Iranian official media reported explosions in the southern coastal town of Sirik and on nearby Qeshm Island, caused by what it described as “enemy” projectiles fired from a fighter jet.
Hours later, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned the US against further escalation. “Despite its defeats on the battlefield, the US opted to test our determination,” he wrote on X. “Our powerful armed forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered. Leave our region if you want to be safe.”
Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said diplomacy with the US could not advance amid repeated ceasefire breaches. "Following overnight events, we need to reassess [the diplomatic path with Washington] ... any diplomatic process requires a minimum stable environment," he said in remarks reported by state media. He stopped short of saying talks with the US were suspended.
Iran has also been seeking to break what it regards as a recurring cycle of direct US strikes on its territory, while preserving room to manoeuvre before November's US midterm elections, which both sides see as a potential turning point.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said soon after that it had launched retaliatory strikes on 21 US military sites across Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait. The targets included F-35 fighter jet hangars and a command-and-control centre at the Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan and the US Navy's Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. The IRGC also claimed to have shot down an American MQ-9 drone over Iran's Bushehr province.
Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait all reported activating air defence systems and intercepting attacks, with no casualties or damage confirmed in any of the three countries. A US official told Reuters there were no reports of American casualties or damage to US sites, adding that "just about all" missiles and drones had been intercepted.
The US Central Command said the two crew members aboard the Apache helicopter had been rescued within two hours by a US military sea drone and were in a stable condition. A US official said the helicopter had been brought down by a one-way attack drone, though the incident is still being investigated.
The IRGC said its attacks were a direct response to US strikes on Iranian territory and warned that it would retaliate against any further US military action.
The sequence of strikes and retaliatory attacks comes against the backdrop of a war that has steadily widened since February, expanding to encompass repeated exchanges of fire involving US forces and Iran-backed groups across the Gulf.
The scale of recent fighting emphasises how fragile the truce has become, with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project recording 45 air and drone strike events between June 8 and 9 – the most intense exchange since the April ceasefire began.
In a separate incident, armed security personnel aboard a cargo vessel off Yemen's coast fought off assailants near the Bab Al Mandeb strait.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said the vessel was approached by a small craft carrying six armed individuals. There was an exchange of fire before the assailants broke off. No casualties or damage were reported.
The attack comes after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels issued threats to Red Sea shipping. Only two days ago, the group’s military spokesman, Brig Gen Yahya Saree, had declared a “complete ban on enemy navigation” in the Red Sea. He said “enemy ships” are to be treated as military targets and warned that operations would intensify in response to regional escalation.
The current US-Iran ceasefire has repeatedly been put under strain. Both sides have indicated they are prepared for further escalation while claiming a desire to avoid full-scale war.
Mr Trump has struggled to secure an agreement to end the war he started alongside Israel.
Israeli troops conducted renewed strikes on Lebanon on Tuesday, including on the southern city of Tyre, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens. Israel's refusal to end its campaign against Hezbollah has hindered those efforts – Tehran has long said any peace deal depends in part on the fighting in Lebanon being brought to an end.
