U.S. official says Apache hit Iranian drone before crash

AP reported, and Guardian carried, a U.S.-official account that the Army Apache that crashed off Oman went down after colliding with an Iranian drone. The same reports say it was not clear whether the collision was intentional and that official statements kept the crash under investigation.

Why this matters. This narrows the trigger for U.S. strikes without closing the attribution question. The watchpoint is whether the investigation turns a collision report into a deliberate-attack finding, because that changes both retaliation risk and diplomacy space.