Iran live updates: US launches strikes against Iran over downed helicopter, CENTCOM says

The U.S. Apache attack helicopter that crashed near the coast of Oman overnight was brought down by an Iranian drone, two U.S. officials familiar with the Pentagon’s latest assessment tell ABC News.

The investigation has not yet determined whether Iran intended to use the drone to attack the helicopter, they added.

The drone involved in the incident is the same type Iran typically uses to target ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, one official said.

-ABC News' Shannon K. Kingston and Luis Martinez

The autonomous surface sea drone used to rescue the two Apache crewmembers picked them up and transported them to another location on the water where they were then hoisted up to a helicopter for further transport, according to a U.S. official.

As President Donald Trump says the U.S. military believes Iran is to blame for the downing of a Apache helicopter that crashed in the Middle East, an Iranian official suggested Iran is ready to retaliate if commitments are broken.

"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!" the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said in a post on X.

President Donald Trump said the U.S. Apache helicopter that crashed in the Middle East was shot down by Iran, saying the U.S. "must, of necessity, respond to this attack."

“I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a post on social media.