U.S. retaliates against Iran after American helicopter downed near Strait of Hormuz

By — Geoff Bennett Geoff Bennett By — Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/u-s-retaliates-against-iran-after-american-helicopter-downed-near-strait-of-hormuz Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio The U.S. military started what it called "self-defense strikes" against Iran for the downing of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump said the two crew members were both "safe and uninjured" after the Apache helicopter went down while on patrol off the coast of Oman. Geoff Bennett discussed the latest with Dan Lamothe of The Washington Post. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Geoff Bennett: The U.S. military said this evening it started what it calls self-defense strikes against Iran for the downing of a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier, on social media, President Trump said two crew members on board were both safe and uninjured, but that the U.S., as he put it, must of necessity respond to this attack. U.S. military officials say the Apache helicopter went down while on patrol off the coast of Oman. The rescue was carried out by an unmanned drone boat in what appears to be a first for the U.S. military. In a social media post of his own, Iran's foreign minister responded by saying -- quote -- "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 the crossfire." He suggests that the best solution is for them to leave. For more on this still developing story, we're joined by Dan Lamothe, who covers the U.S. military for The Washington Post. Dan, thanks for being with us. CENTCOM says an investigation is under way. What has been confirmed so far about how this helicopter went down off the coast of the Strait of Hormuz? Dan Lamothe, The Washington Post: We're really waiting on additional details for how that helicopter managed to go down. There's some question over whether or not it may be an Iranian drone that hit the helicopter, which I think may also be a first if confirmed that a drone would have taken down an American helicopter. But we're actually in a moment now really, as we're speaking, where the United States is responding. There's targets being hit this hour. And we're waiting to see where exactly that leaves the whole thing after. Geoff Bennett: I was going to ask you that. What more can you share in terms of your reporting about the response? The U.S. -- U.S. officials are calling it a proportional response to an unjustified Iranian aggression? Dan Lamothe: Yes, that's how they're framing it. The fact they're calling it a proportional response would lead to believe that we're probably looking at a handful of targets. They often will try to do sort of like for like. So, if you told me that