Iran Says It Found Wreckage of Missing U.S. Copter

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday retrieved wreckage of an American helicopter allegedly shot down by Iranian forces in a showdown with the U.S. Navy, Tehran Radio reported.

The broadcast, monitored in Nicosia, said naval units of the Revolutionary Guards found the wreckage in the Persian Gulf and brought it ashore.

It said inspection proved the parts belonged “to the U.S. Cobra helicopter which was shot by the Iranian forces and crashed in the gulf” Monday.

The U.S. Navy blasted two offshore Iranian oil platforms Monday, touching off the most serious engagement with the Iranians since American warships began escorting reflagged Kuwaiti tankers in the gulf last summer.

The U.S. Navy sank or seriously damaged two Iranian naval frigates and four smaller vessels, and fired on Iranian jets in the clash.

Pentagon officials said in Washington that a U.S. helicopter with a two-man crew was missing in that confrontation. The missing crewmen were later identified as Capt. Stephen C. Leslie of New Bern, N.C., and Capt. Kenneth W. Hill of Thomasville, N.C.

Iran maintains that its forces shot the helicopter down, but that report has not been independently confirmed.

Washington said the attack on the Iranian platforms was a “measured response” for a mine explosion that damaged the American frigate Samuel B. Roberts on April 14, wounding 10 crew members.

The United States blamed Iran for sowing mines in the gulf, and U.S. minesweepers on Friday destroyed five such explosives. Pentagon officials said the Navy examined the mines before they were detonated and found that they had been manufactured by Iran.

On Friday, Reagan Administration officials said that the United States will now allow American warships to assist neutral vessels under attack in the gulf.

Since last summer, the U.S. Navy has protected 11 American-flagged Kuwaiti tankers from Iranian attack.