Middle East crisis live: Tehran launches retaliatory attacks on Bahrain after US strikes Iran

The US strikes on Iran came just five hours after Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran had shot down a US military helicopter that was patrolling the strait of Hormuz and that the US “must” respond.

Earlier, US Central Command said the crash – in which two crew members were rescued in stable condition – was still under investigation. In a phone call with the Wall Street Journal before his Truth Social post, Trump appeared to also down play the crash, telling the Journal that it “wasn’t a big deal” and that “the pilot is fine.”

Iranian state media is reporting explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas and the island of Qeshm, according to Reuters.

The US military began launching “self-defense” strikes again Iran at 5 p.m. EST Tuesday – about 1 a.m. local time, US Central Command said.

The strikes come “at the Commander in Chief’s direction” in response to yesterday’s downing of a US Army Apache helicopter,” Centcom said.

“The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” the post reads.

The Lebanese health ministry said Tuesday that an Israeli strike killed three near Tyre in southern Lebanon, bringing the death toll up to 11 in the region, AFP reports.

Nine people were also wounded in the strike.

Iranian state media is reporting that no air military operations have taken place in the strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours, according to Reuters – which means Iran did not shoot down the US military helicopter, an attack to which Donald Trump says the US “must” respond.

The military source quoted by Iranian state media said there would be a “decisive response” to any renewed hostility from the US because of the helicopter crash, Reuters reports.

In that same statement on X, Seyed Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, once again asserted his belief that the strait of Hormuz is an exclusively Omani-Iranian waterway and that Iran has a right to defend itself against foreign forces in its territory.

The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour has more details on how this assertion butts against the principle of freedom of navigation – international laws protecting freedom of movement at sea:

Western diplomats say Iranian proposals for the future permanent management of the strait are unlawful since they impose tolls on commercial shipping and would give Iran an arbitrary right to select the ships that are allowed passage, possibly based on the nationality of ownership.…The legal rights of coastal states to impose tolls lies at the heart of the deadlock on how to reopen the strait and whether Iran’s proposed move, by restricting freedom of navigation, is illegal and sets a precedent for other similar waterways.

Iran became a signatory to the UN convention on the law of the sea (Unclos) in 1982, very soon after the 1979 revolution, but never ratified the treaty.

This means that from Iran’s perspective it is not bound by the treaty’s transit passage rules that underpin freedom of navigation, but instead by customary international law, including a more restrictive right of innocent passage.

More here:

In a new statement on X, Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Araghchi warned that “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.”

“To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave. We prefer language of diplomacy but speak other languages too,” he added.

Araghchi’s statement follows Donald Trump saying on Truth Social earlier today that “last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the strait of Hormuz.”

Trump added that the “United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

Although Donald Trump said that it was Iran that had shot down a US military helicopter, US Central Command posted on X that the cause is still under investigation.

The Army AH-64 Apache helicopter had gone down near the coast of Oman, with rescue efforts taking place at 7:33 p.m. EST Monday – early Tuesday local time, according to Centcom.

The two crew members, who had been patrolling regional waters, were rescued in about two hours and are in stable condition.

Just before Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran had shot down a military helicopter and the US “must” respond, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, posted on X:

“We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we speak other languages far more fluently. Break your commitments, and we’ll switch to what we speak best. You ride the horse you saddled!”

• Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli airstrike on the southern city of Tyre before an Israeli military warning on Tuesday killed at least eight people and wounded 32 others, noting the toll was provisional. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) had reported the strike not long before Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning for the entire city and surrounding areas ahead of strikes there.

• The Israeli army on Tuesday said its forces killed a gunman who had managed to infiltrate Israeli territory from Lebanon and opened fire on its troops. “A short while ago, an initial report was received regarding a shooting toward IDF soldiers operating in the Ramim Ridge area,” the army said, referring to a mountainous area stretching between Israel and Lebanon.

• Britain, Canada, France and Norway announced new coordinated sanctions on Tuesday against Israeli networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The move follows escalating violence by Israeli settlers, which diplomats say is intended to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.

• France has banned Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country, as part of coordinated sanctions with other countries over settler violence against Palestinians. Smotrich is the second member of the Israeli government to be forbidden from entering France in recent months, after national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir was barred on 23 May for mocking activists detained by Israeli soldiers from a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid for the Palestinian territory.

• In a phone interview with the BBC, Donald Trump said he had stressed the need “to use a lot of common sense” when he spoke to Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, who he has reportedly grown increasingly exasperated with during the war. “All I did is say, ‘we have to use sense’. We’re very close to signing a very powerful deal, a very good deal,” Trump said of the conversation. “No nuclear weapons, no nothing. You know, we have to use a lot of common sense. It was fine.”

• Trump said the peace deal with Iran is in its “final throes” and suggested that the strait of Hormuz could open up in “two or three days” if an agreement with Tehran is secured. “It will open up immediately upon signing,” he told reporters on the tarmac at JFK airport after watching the NBA Finals on Monday night, insisting that Iran will not be allowed nuclear weapons under the terms of a deal.

• Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, has thanked Iran for attacking Israel “in defence” of Lebanese people, suggesting that Lebanon’s government should take this opportunity to improve relations with Tehran. In a statement on Tuesday, Hezbollah said Lebanese authorities should “take advantage of this opportunity and correct their official relations with the Islamic Republic in a way that serves the interests of both countries.”

• UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday he was “deeply alarmed” by the renewed escalation in violence in the Middle East. “All attacks must stop immediately. The ceasefires in Lebanon, Iran + Gaza must be fully respected,” he said in a post on X.

• A US navy surface drone found and rescued the two crew from a US Apache attack helicopter from the waters of the strait of Hormuz, the US military’s Central Command has told the Reuters news agency.

• Iran’s football federation (FFIRI) said on Tuesday that its ticket allocation for the World Cup has been pulled just days before it starts, leaving supporters who had already made travel plans unable to attend their team’s matches. “This is despite the fact that many Iranian football fans, relying on the officially announced process, had already made the necessary plans to attend the matches,” the FFIRI added in a statement.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a US military helicopter was shot down by Iran and that the United States “must” respond.

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump said he had been informed “that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the strait of Hormuz.”

While the pilots were uninjured, “the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

Israel has bombed the city of Tyre, killing eight and injuring at least 32 people, and struck dozens of other villages in south Lebanon as it issued forced evacuation orders for the historic Christian quarter of the ancient city for the first time.

Israel struck the al-Masaken neighbourhood without warning on Tuesday morning, sending smoke plumes high above the city’s buildings and igniting fires. Further airstrikes were carried out across the city and a series of bombings hit Abbasieh, a village north of Tyre.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacks on Israeli soldiers in the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras. The Israeli army said it had killed a “terrorist” who had crossed the border from Lebanon into Israel and opened fire on Israeli soldiers – the first time in this round of fighting that a fighter from Lebanon had crossed the border. It was unclear if the gunman was affiliated with Hezbollah.

Shortly after the bombings in Tyre, Israel issued a forced evacuation warning for Palestinian refugee camps in the city, as well as for the Christian quarter, claiming members of Hezbollah had infiltrated the area and could attack.

Smoke rising following an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, earlier today.

France has banned Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country, as part of coordinated sanctions with other countries over settler violence against Palestinians.

Smotrich is the second member of the Israeli government to be forbidden from entering France in recent months, after national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir was barred on 23 May for mocking activists detained by Israeli soldiers from a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid for the Palestinian territory.

The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway already slapped a travel ban on both ministers in June last year over inciting violence against Palestinians.

Other countries have also banned the ministers, including Spain, Slovenia and most recently Ireland.

The Israeli army on Tuesday said its forces killed a gunman who had managed to infiltrate Israeli territory from Lebanon and opened fire on its troops.

“A short while ago, an initial report was received regarding a shooting toward IDF soldiers operating in the Ramim Ridge area,” the army said, referring to a mountainous area stretching between Israel and Lebanon.

“The soldiers returned fire and eliminated a terrorist in the area. No IDF injuries were reported,” the army said, confirming to AFP that the gunman had managed to enter Israel.

Britain, Canada, France and Norway announced new coordinated sanctions on Tuesday against Israeli networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The move follows escalating violence by Israeli settlers, which diplomats say is intended to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.