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U.S. Helicopter Down U.S. Iran Exchange Strikes



 Here’s the latest.

(Lara JakesLeo Sands and Adam Rasgon)

President Trump issued a new threat against Iran on Wednesday after U.S. and Iranian forces traded strikes across the Middle East, potentially upending a fragile cease-fire.

“They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. He made the comments hours after the U.S. military said its jets had hit Iranian targets in response to an attack on an American Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

The exchange of strikes, and Mr. Trump’s latest threat, came a day after he said that a deal to end the war with Iran could be signed within days. The president has made such claims repeatedly, though there was no clear sign of progress in negotiations.

A delegation of Qatari officials arrived in Iran on Wednesday to discuss efforts to negotiate a deal, according to a regional official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Qatar, alongside Pakistan, has served as a key mediator between Iran and the United States in diplomatic efforts to end the war.

Iran has not admitted or denied downing the helicopter, but its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said the American strikes had been conducted “under false premises.” In retaliation, Iran said it had launched attack drones against U.S. naval targets in Bahrain and fired missiles at American military facilities in Jordan. The extent of any damage was not immediately clear, though officials in all three countries said that the strikes had been intercepted.

Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said the U.S. attacks undermined diplomatic efforts to end the war, according to Mehr, a semiofficial Iranian news agency.

IRIB, the Iranian state broadcaster, reported that the U.S. attacks hit drinking water facilities in the Bamani district of Sirik County, in the southern Hormozgan Province, cutting off water for thousands of people. Video footage of the damage, published by IRIB, was verified by The New York Times. U.S. Central Command did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

  • Persian Gulf: The Jordanian military said it had intercepted five missiles launched from Iran toward a region that includes the Muwaffaq Salti base, which has been used for U.S. air operations. Bahrain’s military said it had taken out several Iranian drones and missiles. And the Kuwait Army said its air defenses had intercepted hostile targets. The Revolutionary Guards claimed to have caused damage at U.S. bases, but that claim could not immediately be verified.

  • Lebanon: Israel deepened its assault across southern Lebanon on Tuesday in attacks it said were aimed at Iran-backed Hezbollah militants after an exchange of strikes between Iran and Israel ended the previous day. In the southern city of Tyre, at least eight people were reported to have been killed after the Israeli attacks.

  • Market reaction: Oil prices jumped following Mr. Trump’s new threat, reversing losses earlier on Wednesday after the tit-for-tat strikes. 

  • Nuclear talks: The Trump administration’s negotiations with Tehran have focused on four major elements of a nuclear agreement that U.S. officials say would grind Iran’s program to a halt for about 15 years. Read more ›

Leo Sands

Leo Sands

Breaking news reporter

Two crew members were missing and the rest were being evacuated following a fire on a tanker off the coast of Oman, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations organization. The agency, which is administered by Britain’s Royal Navy, described the fire as “suspicious” and said the crew had reported on Wednesday that there was fire in the engine room.

U.S. strikes hit drinking water facilities in Iran, according to state media reports.

Iran’s state broadcaster reported that U.S. military strikes hit water facilities in the south of the country on Wednesday, damaging two concrete tanks and cutting off water supplies for thousands of residents.

Video published by IRIB, the state broadcaster, and verified by The New York Times, showed a damaged concrete structure with a collapsed roof in Sirik county in Hormozgan province, on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz. 

IRIB said that the facility was a water tank. The Times could not independently verify that claim or what caused the damage.

The IRIB report was published hours after U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said it had conducted strikes in southern Iran in response to the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter on Monday.

Central Command did not respond to a request for comment on the water facilities in Sirik on Wednesday. Hours earlier, it said it had targeted Iranian air defenses, ground control stations and radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with “precision munitions.”

The strait is a vital route for oil and gas shipments. Iran’s effective blockade of the waterway has roiled global energy markets and become a major source of leverage in its negotiations with the United States on a deal to end the war.

The U.S. military has previously launched strikes against Iranian facilities in Hormozgan. In March, airstrikes hit an underground air force base there.

The two water tanks had a combined capacity of 2.5 million liters, Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, the chief executive of the province’s water company, said in a statement published on its website, adding that they were damage by missiles.

The water company said that the damage took both facilities out of service, cutting off water for 20,000 people in Kuhestak and 10 other villages in the district of Bemani.

The structure is near the city of Kuhestak. Text painted on the hilltop structure reads: “Water is the pulse of life.” The most recent photographs available from Planet Labs, a satellite imagery company, showed the structure was undamaged in early January.

Samuel Granados/The New York Times

Gregory Schmidt

Gregory Schmidt

Reporting from New York

Oil prices jumped on Wednesday after President Trump issued a new threat against Iran on social media, saying that Tehran would “pay the price” for taking too long to negotiate a deal to end the war. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose nearly 2 percent to about $93 a barrel, after falling earlier in the day. 

The war has caused oil prices to soar by almost 30 percent since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, pushing up costs for consumers and businesses. Data published on Wenesday showed that U.S. inflation accelerated in May for a third-straight month to an annual rate of 4.2 percent, a sign that the war in Iran is putting more pressure on the economy.

Adam Rasgon

Adam Rasgon

Reporting from Jerusalem

A delegation of Qatari officials arrived in Iran on Wednesday to discuss efforts to negotiate a deal between the United States and Iran, according to a regional official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. The visit was also reported in Iranian media. Qatar, alongside Pakistan, has served as a key mediator between Iran and the United States in efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

Pragati K.B.

Pragati K.B.

Reporting from New Delhi

Indian sailors made frantic calls for help after a U.S. missile strike on Monday.

Image
The Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Oman. An Omani military helicopter was used to rescue 24 Indian sailors aboard a ship that was struck by a U.S. missile on Monday.Credit...Reuters

Two dozen Indian sailors aboard an oil tanker struck by a U.S. missile off the coast of Oman on Monday sent frantic SOS messages for more than two hours before they were rescued.

“We have fire onboard, we have fire onboard. And vessel is sinking,” a crew member on board the ship, the Marivex, said in a voice message to Indian shipping authorities and organizations.

“Please help, please help … We are all crew Indian. 24 crew,” the crew member added in the message, which was shared with The New York Times by Manoj Yadav, the general secretary of an Indian seafarers’ union.

All the sailors were later rescued by a military helicopter from Oman and were taken ashore to Masirah Island, off Oman’s coast.

The U.S. military’s Central Command later said that it had “disabled” the Marivex because the ship had violated its naval blockade of Iran by attempting to sail to an Iranian port. It said that a fighter jet from the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier had fired “into the ship’s engineering and steering spaces” after the crew failed to comply with directions from U.S. forces.

Central Command said that it had disabled seven “noncompliant vessels” since April 13, when the Trump administration initiated a blockade of ships traveling to or from Iranian ports in an effort to put pressure on Tehran to make a deal to end hostilities with the United States.

Both the United States and Iran have sought to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz — a vital maritime waterway for transporting oil, gas and other critical commodities — since they agreed to a cease-fire in April. Iran says that only ships that have permission from its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps will be allowed to pass.

India’s shipping ministry said that it had received “reports of a fire” starting at about 1:30 p.m. Monday on the Marivex, a Palau-flagged vessel. The ministry’s initial statement on the matter did not specify the cause of the fire.

Mr. Yadav, the general secretary of the Forward Seamen’s Union of India, said he started receiving messages from the crew a little after 2 p.m. Then came a flurry of frantic calls, messages and voice notes pleading for help, he said. 

Videos the crew shared with Mr. Yadav showed a fire in the engine room. One of the two lifeboats on the ship had been destroyed when the ship was hit and the second was inaccessible, he said.

Mr. Yadav gathered the videos and messages and posted them on social media, tagging the Indian navy and India’s foreign affairs ministry. He said that the Indian Embassy in Oman then reached out to him and rescue efforts began. 

By 4:15 p.m., Mr. Yadav began receiving videos from the crew showing them being rescued by helicopter.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for India’s foreign affairs ministry, said the ship had been “disabled” — echoing the U.S. Central Command — but that the crew was safe. He thanked the Omani government for rescuing the seafarers.

Leo Sands

Leo Sands

Breaking news reporter

President Trump appeared to threaten Iran on Wednesday morning for failing to agree to a deal to end the war, hours after the U.S. military and Iranian forces traded strikes. “They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!” he wrote on social media. 

Image
Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
Leo Sands

Leo Sands

Breaking news reporter

Israel’s military said that it was continuing its strikes against southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, describing the offensive as an effort to target Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants. Hours after that statement, Israel’s military issued fresh evacuation warnings for residents in at least three towns and villages.

Euan Ward

Euan Ward

Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

Iran’s foreign ministry accused the United States on Wednesday of undermining diplomacy after the two countries exchanged attacks, further straining the fragile cease-fire. Esmaeil Baghaei, the foreign ministry spokesman, said negotiations could not advance without “a minimum level of conducive conditions,” according to Mehr, a semi-official Iranian news agency. According to the report, Baghaei also accused Israel of derailing diplomatic efforts through cease-fire violations in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group.

The New York Times

Oil wavers and stocks sink after the fresh wave of strikes across the Middle East.

Stocks pulled back and oil prices rose on Wednesday after the United States and Iran traded strikes across the Middle East.

The attacks, straining a two-month cease-fire between the countries, were the latest jolt to energy markets. The war in Iran has choked the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries as much as one fifth of the world’s oil.

Stocks drop.

  • Futures on the S&P 500 pointed to a 1 percent decline when stocks resume trading in the United States on Wednesday.

  • Stocks in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas, mostly fell. Volatility in technology stocks continued with the Kospi index in South Korea declining 4.5 percent and the Taiex in Taiwan dropping 3.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 1.9 percent lower.

  • In Europe, the Stoxx 600, a broad-index that tracks the region’s largest companies, was down 0.7.

S&P 500 index

How stocks are trading in the United States

June 90.26
6,5007,0007,500
Iran War Live Updates: After U.S. and Iran Exchange Strikes, Trump Issues New Threat - The New York Times

Note: Data delayed at least 15 minutes.

Source: FactSet.

The New York Times

Oil climbs.

  • The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose 1.8 percent to about $93 a barrel.

  • West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was up 2 percent to around $90 a barrel.

  • Oil prices had been wavering on Wednesday but jumped after President Trump, in a social media post, appeared to threaten Iran for failing to agree to end the war.

  • Inflation accelerated in May for the third-straight month, to an annual rate of 4.2 percent, a sign that the energy shock caused by the war in Iran is putting pressure on the U.S. economy.

Price of Brent crude oil

How much the international benchmark costs

020406080$100 per barrel

Notes: Data shows future contract prices for Brent crude oil. Gaps indicate nontrading hours. Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.

Source: FactSet.

The New York Times

Gasoline prices dip.

  • Gas prices fell a penny to a national average of $4.15 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. The increase has raised the cost for drivers by 39 percent since the war began.

  • Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days.

  • The average price of diesel also dipped to $5.30 a gallon, now up 41 percent since the start of the war.

How High Are Gas Prices Where You Live?

Here is a county-level look at where drivers are facing the highest costs.

What they are saying: A ‘topsy-turvy’ week in markets.

  • It has been a “genuinely topsy-turvy” week of trading thus far, Deutsche Bank analysts wrote, “with oil and tech whipsawing” markets on Monday and Tuesday.

  • “Not only are we oscillating between deal or no deal with the U.S. and Iran, but markets are also swinging between 1999-style A.I. exuberance and 2000-type tech crash fears,” they noted.

Leo Sands and Sanam Mahoozi

Leo Sands and Sanam Mahoozi

Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, reported that drinking water reservoirs in the Bamani district of Sirik County, in the southern Hormozgan Province were hit by U.S. military strikes overnight. “Two desalination plants and the city’s water tank were destroyed,” the report said. The New York Times could not independently verify the report and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ismaeel Naar

Bahrain’s military said it had intercepted and destroyed a number of drones and missiles launched by Iran on Wednesday, describing them as “treacherous” attacks.

Sanam Mahoozi

Sanam Mahoozi

Iran’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it is the responsibility of Persian Gulf countries to prevent U.S. strikes on Iran from their territories. Iran will not hesitate to defend itself by targeting the bases from where it is attacked, the ministry said in a statement published by state media.

Qasim Nauman

Jordanian air defenses intercepted five missiles launched from Iran toward the Azraq region, according to a military statement published by Jordan’s official news agency on Wednesday. The military said the debris from the interceptions caused no material damage or casualties. The Iranian military had said earlier that it fired missiles at U.S. military facilities in Azraq.

The area is home to Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, which has been used for U.S. military operations in the region. The base was damaged in the early days of the war, according to satellite imagery.

Eric Schmitt

Eric Schmitt

Reporting from Washington

Iran launched multiple missiles and drones at U.S. bases around the Middle East early Wednesday, and nearly all were intercepted according to initial American assessments, a U.S. official said. There have been no reports of American casualties, and no reports as yet of damage to U.S. bases in the region from the Iranian attacks, the official said.

Qasim Nauman

The Kuwait Army says its air defenses are intercepting hostile targets. The statement from the military did not say if these were missiles or drones, or where they were launched from.

Eric Schmitt

Eric Schmitt

Reporting from Washington

The I.R.G.C.’s assertions that it conducted 21 attacks against U.S. bases in the region early Wednesday “are simply not true,” a U.S. official said. 

Farnaz Fassihi

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement that its naval forces had launched 21 attacks on U.S. bases in the region and shot down an American MQ-9 drone aircraft over the Iranian area of Jam. The I.R.G.C. statement said that Iran had attacked the Al Azraq American military base in Jordan with ballistic missiles.

Eric Schmitt

Eric Schmitt

Reporting from Washington

Bahrain’s interior ministry said it sounded sirens early Wednesday but the U.S. Central Command, which directs military operations for the region, declined to comment. A U.S. official said it was “an active situation.”

Farnaz Fassihi

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement that it launched drone attacks on U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain in retaliation to earlier American attacks on several locations on the southern shores of Iran. The statement said that Americans “under fake premises” struck Jask, Sirak and Qeshm Island along the Persian Gulf Coast, and said a telecommunication tower in Jask and two water tanks in the area were destroyed.

Nicholas KulishEric Schmitt

A sea drone rescued the downed Apache’s 2-person crew. Here’s what to know. 

Image
A photo provided by Saronic Technologies showing the type of sea drone used to rescue two crew members from an Apache helicopter downed near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. Credit...Saronic Technologies

In the latest sign that unmanned vehicles are an increasingly pivotal part of a modern military, a drone boat rescued the two-person crew from the U.S. Apache helicopter gunship that went down near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command said.

It was the first U.S. rescue carried out by an autonomous surface vessel, remotely piloted by a human operator, the Central Command spokesman, Capt. Tim Hawkins, said on Tuesday.

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