- US helicopter crashes near Omani coast, two crew rescued
- Iran and Israel halted attacks on each other after Trump appeal
- Israel issues evacuation order for Lebanese city of Tyre
WASHINGTON, June 9 — President Donald Trump said today that two US helicopter crew members were “fine” following their rescue by a US Navy drone after their Apache gunship went down in the Iranian-controlled Strait of Hormuz.
A US Navy surface drone found and rescued the two crew from the waters of the strait, the US military’s Central Command told Reuters.
The pair were rescued within about two hours and were in stable condition, Centcom said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether the Apache had been shot down by Iranian fire, experienced mechanical failure, or encountered another problem. Asked if he knew what had brought the helicopter down, Trump said a report would be issued later today.
“The pilots are fine,” Trump said, speaking on the runway at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport before returning to Washington, D.C. “Nobody injured.”
Iran and Israel stop attacks on each other
Iran and Israel said yesterday that they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from Trump, settling back into a tenuous ceasefire announced on April 8.
Two Iranian air defence personnel were killed in Israeli strikes yesterday, Iran’s military said, and their funerals were due to be held this afternoon in Tehran. No deaths were reported in Israel after the Iranian strikes.
Oil prices, which had risen on the exchanges of fire, gave up most of their gains today after the two sides paused attacks.
Tehran warned, however, that it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to hit Iran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. Today, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for the Lebanese city of Tyre ahead of possible strikes.
The order included the Christian quarter, an area previously excluded from evacuation warnings. The military said Hezbollah militants were operating there, without providing evidence.
Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon helped trigger the latest missile exchanges between Iran and Israel — the most direct confrontation since the April ceasefire — complicating Trump’s push to end a war that the US and Israel launched on February 28.
Trump also told reporters he might have “an idea” for an Iran deal within a few days, without elaborating. The Republican president, struggling with record low approval ratings as November’s midterm elections approach, has often hinted at an imminent deal with Tehran, but none has yet materialised.
Iran had fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday, calling the strikes retaliation for attacks on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia on the outskirts of Beirut.
Israel then hit Iranian air defence systems and a petrochemical plant that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa.
Trump tells Netanyahu to ‘be careful’
US and Israeli officials said Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday.
In an interview with Axios, Trump said he had warned the Israeli leader not to return to war with Iran: “I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon.’”
Tehran has long said any peace deal with the US depends in part on an end to fighting in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who had fired across the border.
Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people, saying the conflict should be treated separately from any US-Iranian ceasefire. Hezbollah has also continued its attacks.
At the same time, Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump has said any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon. Iran’s demands include the lifting of international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its control of the strait. — Reuters
US Navy drone rescues Apache helicopter crew after crash in Strait of Hormuz, Trump says
