Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at a base in Jordan used by the US military and attacked 10 ships on Wednesday, after the US said it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers, in a sharp escalation of the six-month-old war. Increased attacks by both the US and Iran have shattered a month of relative calm, hitting military, shipping and energy assets, sending oil prices surging and drawing in regional allies in recent days.
The Americans said they destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday. The US military's Central Command posted video of the strikes, which it called a response to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeting a US Navy warship twice with ballistic missiles over the previous two days. No Americans were harmed, the US said. "Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they're going to lose tankers," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.
Iran then carried out a ballistic missile attack on a base used by US forces near Al Azraq in Jordan, according to an IRGC statement on state media. Although Iran said its missiles inflicted heavy damage, Jordan said its air defences intercepted 18 of the 20 Iranian missiles, with two falling in unpopulated areas, and that there were no casualties. A US official said Iran's strikes in Jordan were ineffective and all American troops were accounted for.
The IRGC said on Wednesday it also attacked 10 ships, including two US vessels and eight oil tankers, attempting to cross a "prohibited and unsafe" area of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy conduit largely choked off by Iranian attacks. Iran has targeted US assets and allies in the region throughout the war, including in Jordan several times, killing at least two US military personnel during one strike in July. Iran has also threatened oil tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, according to a statement carried by state media.