Tehran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards said they struck two US military air bases with ballistic missiles in Washington-allied Jordan, causing “heavy damage”.
Jordan’s army said it had intercepted eight missiles, without stating their origin.
Iran also said it targeted US military personnel at an air base in the United Arab Emirates, state TV reported.
Tehran “targeted the areas where US helicopters and personnel are stationed at Al Minhad Base in the UAE, using dozens of attack drones,” the army said.
The strikes came after the United States said it had attacked Iranian rocket launchers on a small island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Washington said its attacks were aimed at preventing Iran from launching more sea mines into the strait, days after it announced it had completed clearing explosives from the strategic waterway.
“US forces took limited, precise action against IRGC [Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’] minelaying forces posing an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz,” the US Central Command wrote on X.
The Revolutionary Guards said the US strikes resulted in “casualties” and that their subsequent attack on Jordan was “in response to the US-Zionist aerial aggression”.
“We are not seeking war, but we will deliver a decisive response to the aggressors,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a statement quoted by state TV.
Pezeshkian was speaking before travelling to Kyrgyzstan for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which will be attended by President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, among others.
The exchange of fire came shortly after the US-Iran war hit the six-month mark, and at a time when hostilities had been subsiding.
In recent weeks, the administration of US President Donald Trump has prioritised “economic warfare” over military strikes on Iran.
Tehran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic sea lane through which one fifth of the world’s oil passed before the United States and Israel triggered hostilities with strikes on Iran on February 28. (AFP)
