ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Jordan said Wednesday it engaged 20 ballistic missiles fired toward its territory from Iran, adding that the majority were intercepted while others landed in remote areas causing minimal damage. This comes a day after Iranian armed forces said they would launch attacks on alleged American assets in the region in response to US strikes on Iranian oil tankers off Iran's southern coast.
“The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was subjected to a missile attack originating from Iranian territory over the past few hours,” the Jordanian Armed Forces said in a statement carried by state-run Jordan News Agency (Petra), detailing that the country's air defense systems “engaged 20 ballistic missiles” and that “18 of these missiles were successfully intercepted and destroyed, while two fell in unpopulated areas.”
"The armed forces further confirm that monitoring, early warning, and air defense systems are at the highest state of operational readiness to deal with any threat, and that its units and formations continue executing their duties round-the-clock to safeguard the Kingdom, its security, and the sovereignty of its airspace," the statement added.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday stated that its aerospace forces “targeted facilities used for the maintenance, preparation and deployment of US F-35, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets at the al-Azraq airbase in Jordan.”
“The attack was carried out with solid- and liquid-fueled ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said in a statement carried by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), adding that “heavy damage” was inflicted on the targeted sites.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, the entity overseeing Tehran's wartime operations, said “the US military had threatened to target three Iranian tankers” in regional waters, warning that "any aggression against Iranian vessels” would prompt “severe targeting of US bases and interests in the region” by the Iranian armed forces.
Moreover, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy issued what it described as an “urgent warning” to “all tanker crews within the vicinity of the docks of Kuwait and Bahrain” to “immediately evacuate their vessels, whether at anchorage or at the piers, because they will be targeted.”
The statement said the warning was issued in response to the targeting of "several" Iranian oil tankers by the US military, which it said were "hosted" by Kuwait and Bahrain, accusing both countries of being "partners" in what it called the US’s "evil acts."
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that its forces “destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers” in regional waters after the IRGC “targeted a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the past two days,” adding that the warship “successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks" and that "no American personnel were harmed.”
“Iran has used the tankers as part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies,” CENTCOM added, noting that its forces had destroyed three other Iranian crude oil carriers on Saturday “after the IRGC tried to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer.”
Fox News on Tuesday cited “senior US officials” as saying the targeting of Iranian oil tankers was part of Washington's “larger effort to squeeze Iran economically.”
Notably, the attacks on Jordan come just days after Amman’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi said Iran's attacks on regional countries were premeditated, prompting a sharp response from his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi.
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