The US and Iran exchanged strikes overnight after President Donald Trump retaliated against Tehran for shooting down an American Apache helicopter.The skirmishes further jolted a two-month-old truce and exposed the fragility of talks between the warring sides aimed at securing a lasting peace in the Middle East.
The US military said it had completed an operation that saw fighter jets strike Iranian air defenses, ground control stations, and radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched missiles on four American targets, including shelters housing F-35 fighter jets and a command center for the US military at Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan, state-run IRIB News said on Wednesday.
Iran also said it fired drones at the US’s main naval base in the Middle East, located in Bahrain, and struck Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait. Tehran warned regional states not to allow the US to use their territory for attacks on the Islamic Republic.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in any of the attacks.
While indirect talks between Iran and the US about an interim deal — meant to extend the ceasefire by two months and reopen the Strait of Hormuz — continue, the confrontations underscored how high tensions are running. They followed strikes between Iran and Israel earlier this week, which led to Trump calling on both countries to stop.
Trump has repeatedly said a deal with Iran is within reach and even with the latest flare up, he’s signaled he wants to contain hostilities and avoid a return to full-on war. Pressure is mounting on him to end a conflict that’s killed thousands of people across the Middle East and sent energy prices soaring, including in the US.
Oil prices were little chance on Wednesday, with Brent down 0.1% to $91.37 a barrel. That stability suggests markets are broadly confident Tehran and Washington will reach an agreement even if skirmishes continue in the meantime. Prices, while still up significantly since the start of the war in February, have fallen from highs of around $118 in late April.
Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that several explosions were heard on Qeshm Island, in the Bandar Abbas region of southern Iran, as well as along the southern coast. Other Iranian media said water-storage tanks in Sirik, in Hormozgan province, were hit, cutting off drinking water supplies.
The American military described its operations as a “proportional response to recent attacks on US forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”
Both pilots in the Apache helicopter were rescued when their aircraft was struck while patrolling the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. A US official, who asked not to be named because an inquiry is ongoing, said initial indications show that the helicopter crashed after a collision with a Shahed drone and that Centcom is assessing whether it was intentional.
Iran hasn’t acknowledged shooting down the helicopter, though Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said “foreign forces in proximity to our territory are at constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents, or potentially being caught in crossfire.”
Key problems in the negotiations include Tehran’s demand that Washington unfreezes more than $10 billion of frozen funds held in foreign countries. It’s also unclear whether Iran will agree to destroying its stocks of highly-enriched uranium or sending them to a country such as China.
Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah, a crucially Iranian ally, is another sticking point. Iran fired missiles at Israel days ago after the Jewish state targeted Hezbollah militants and infrastructure in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. Israel retaliated despite Trump urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to.
On Monday, Iran and Israel agreed to halt their strikes on each other. Tehran reported that some military personnel were killed in Israel’s attacks, while Israel intercepted Iran’s missiles.
Iran and the US are negotiating mainly via Pakistan and states such as Qatar. Pakistani-led intermediaries are continuing discussions with both sides this week, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject.
Photograph: A US Army AH-64 Apache helicopter; photo credit: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg
Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.
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