US Army helicopter goes down near Strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump says ‘nobody injured’

A US Army Apache helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz, while the two crew members were safely rescued.

The incident took place on Monday, June 8, The New York Times reported. Reacting to the incident, US President Donald Trump said that ​the pilots of the helicopter “are fine.”

Advertisement

While addressing mediapersons on the runway ​at John F. Kennedy International ​Airport, Trump said there was “nobody injured.” He added that the US administration is scheduled to release a report on Tuesday.

As of now, it remains unclear whether the Apache was shot down by Iranian fire, experienced any mechanical failure or encountered some other problem.

This comes as Iran and Israel said they had paused military strikes against each other after an appeal by Trump for an immediate de-escalation. However, Tehran has warned that it will resume attacks if Israel continued targeting Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.

The US military has used Apaches along with armed MQ-9 Reaper drones and F/A-18 and F-35 attack planes, as part of its aggressive effort to challenge Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz to most of the commercial traffic.

As per reports, Iran has shot down nearly 30 unmanned Reaper drones, while a handful of US fighter jets have been lost to hostile and friendly fire since the war began on February 28. This is said to be the first Apache lost in the conflict.