US President Donald Trump was initially unconvinced of the need to retaliate against Iran following the downing of a US Army Apache helicopter, describing the incident as "not a big deal" before being persuaded to authorise military action by his top defence officials, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
According to the WSJ, Trump played down the Apache downing during a phone call with the newspaper on Tuesday morning, repeatedly saying it "wasn't a big deal" and stressing that the pilots had not been seriously injured.
He subsequently changed his position after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine recommended military action during a White House briefing, the Journal reported, citing US officials.
Hegseth and Caine provided Trump with updated information about the Iranian Shahed drone that struck the helicopter. The Pentagon, when approached for comment, said it did not discuss internal deliberations involving the president and his military advisers.
Once convinced, Trump directed what the WSJ described as three waves of US strikes against Iran, targeting Iranian air defence systems, radar sites, and ground control stations near the Strait of Hormuz.
US Air Force and Navy fighter jets dropped precision munitions against the targets in an operation that lasted several hours. CENTCOM described the strikes as "a proportional response to recent attacks on US forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters."
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The Journal further reported that Trump has been reluctant to return to a broad bombing campaign, though he had previously told aides he would consider restarting full-scale war with Iran if American service members were killed by Iran.
The Apache was likely struck by an Iranian Shahed drone off the coast of Oman while on maritime patrol, the WSJ reported.
Both crew members were rescued in what officials described as a first-of-its-kind operation by a US Saronic Corsair unmanned surface vessel.
Iranian officials maintained that Tehran did not deliberately target the helicopter, though Iran has continued firing drones at commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in an initial post, said foreign forces near Iranian territory "are at constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents, or potentially being caught in crossfire" — before later warning that Tehran's armed forces would leave "no attack or threat unanswered."
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