“Last night, the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”
Trump noted that both pilots aboard the downed aircraft were rescued unharmed.
The helicopter went down in the early hours of Tuesday while on a patrol mission near the Omani coast.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said the two pilots were retrieved within two hours and are in stable condition.
In a statement on X/Twitter, CENTCOM indicated that the cause of the incident is still under investigation and did not, at that time, assign blame to Iran.
Reuters contributed to this report.