Washington, United States. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that two U.S. helicopter crew members were safe after a U.S. Navy drone rescued them from the Strait of Hormuz when their Apache gunship went down. The U.S. military said the pair were recovered within about two hours and were in stable condition.
Rescue operation in Strait of Hormuz
The U.S. military’s Central Command told Reuters that a U.S. Navy surface drone found and rescued the two crew members from the waters of the Iranian-controlled Strait of Hormuz.
Centcom said in a statement that the crew were rescued within about two hours and were in stable condition.
Trump said the crew members were “fine” and that nobody was injured. Speaking on the runway at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport before returning to Washington, D.C., he said a report on the incident would be issued later on Tuesday.
Cause of helicopter incident unclear
It was not immediately clear whether the Apache had been shot down by Iranian fire, experienced mechanical failure, or encountered another problem.
Asked whether he knew what had caused the helicopter to go down, Trump said more information would be released later on Tuesday.
Iran and Israel pause attacks
Iran and Israel said on Monday that they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from Trump, returning to a tenuous ceasefire announced on April 8.
Iran’s military said two Iranian air defence personnel were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday, and their funerals were due to be held in Tehran on Tuesday afternoon. No deaths were reported in Israel after the Iranian strikes.
Oil prices and regional tensions
Oil prices, which had risen during the exchanges of fire, gave up most of their gains on Tuesday after the two sides paused attacks.
Tehran warned that it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to strike Iran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. On Tuesday, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for the Lebanese city of Tyre ahead of possible strikes.
