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Part of the Pentagon went into lockdown on Thursday, a spokesman said, in response to what a local fire department described as a “hazardous materials incident” at the US military headquarters.
The Arlington County Fire Department said in a post on X that it had units “including our Hazardous Materials Team” operating at the Pentagon during what it described as a “hazardous materials incident.”
The fire department did not provide further details on the nature of the incident.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell meanwhile said in a statement that the building’s safety systems “have detected an air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until we determine its significance.”
The Defense Department “is executing standard protection protocols, including a shelter-in-place order for the affected area. Response teams are in place and ready to support building occupants,” Parnell added.
President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to respond after he accused Iran of shooting down a US military helicopter the previous night, hours after he said negotiations to end the Middle East war were in their final stages.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and its chief negotiator in talks with Washington, meanwhile warned the United States on Tuesday against breaking its “commitments”.
The comments came a day after Iran and Israel halted attacks that threatened to reignite the regional war, which was sparked by US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
Read Also: Trump Urges Restraint As Iran Retaliates Israel’s Lebanon Strikes
In a statement, Trump said he had been informed “that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz”.
While the crew members were uninjured, “the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he said.
Iran’s Ghalibaf also issued a warning on Tuesday.
“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!” he said on X.
The Apache helicopter is the second crewed aircraft that Washington has confirmed was shot down by Iran during the war, following the loss of an F-15 fighter plane in April.
The downing and the prospect of a US response pose the latest threat to a shaky ceasefire in place since April 8, as the US and Iran struggle to negotiate an end to the conflict.
