Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones at U.S. forces in Jordan late Sunday, hours after the U.S. struck Iranian forces preparing to deploy sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz, reigniting direct fighting between Washington and Tehran after a monthlong lull.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it targeted two U.S.-operated air bases in Jordan in a combined missile-and-drone operation in retaliation for the American strike on Larak Island near the strategic waterway.
A U.S. official confirmed the Iranian retaliation to CNN, saying missiles fired into Jordan had been intercepted, and no impacts had been reported. A U.S. source familiar with the situation similarly told Fox News that nearly all of the incoming missiles had been intercepted and no significant impacts had been reported.
Jordan’s armed forces said they intercepted and destroyed eight missiles that entered the country’s airspace, according to Al Jazeera.
The IRGC offered a sharply different assessment, claiming its ballistic missiles destroyed technical and maintenance infrastructure and locations where enemy fighter jets were stationed at the two bases, inflicting what Iranian state media described as “heavy damage.”
Iranian media identified the targets as King Hussein Air Base and Al-Azraq Air Base.
The IRGC dubbed the combined missile-and-drone operation “Punishment of the Aggressor” and warned that any further attacks would draw an even more devastating response.
“Every shot will be met with more devastating responses,” the IRGC said, according to Iran’s Press TV.
The retaliation came hours after U.S. forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island near the northern entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.
“Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz,” U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said.
Hawkins said U.S. forces were “monitoring the area closely” and “remain prepared to protect the free flow of commerce through this essential waterway.”
The Larak attack was the first acknowledged U.S. strike on Iran since July 29, breaking a monthlong lull in direct attacks as the Trump administration increasingly shifted toward imposing severe economic pressure on Tehran.
Iranian officials immediately threatened a forceful military response.
Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s powerful National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, warned Washington that retaliation was already imminent.
“Test our will once more, and pay a heavier price,” Azizi said. “Retaliation is coming; JUST RUN!”
IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi separately characterized the American strike as a “strategic and fatal error” by the Trump administration, warning that it would carry “severe repercussions” across both the military and economic arenas.
The Larak strike followed an explicit warning from President Donald Trump that the United States would destroy Iranian vessels attempting to place new mines in the Strait after CENTCOM announced last week that American forces had cleared sea mines from the waterway’s international shipping lanes.
“Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed,” Trump said Tuesday, adding that the United States was maintaining a “Zero Tolerance” policy toward new mine placement.
The latest exchange again places U.S. forces in Jordan at the center of the military confrontation with Tehran. Three U.S. Army soldiers were killed in an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base on July 17, triggering a new round of American retaliation and a warning from Trump that Tehran would “pay many times over” for every U.S. service member killed.
The fighting continued through late July, culminating in what CENTCOM described as a “heavy wave of strikes” against IRGC targets on July 29 — the last acknowledged U.S. attacks on Iran before Sunday.
Trump announced on Aug. 1 that he would hold off on further strikes at the urging of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as his administration increasingly turned toward severe economic pressure on Tehran while maintaining that military force remained an option.
That monthlong pause ended Sunday with the strike on Larak Island — and Iran’s missile-and-drone retaliation against American forces in Jordan hours later.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
Read the full article here