DUBAI — The U.S. military announced Thursday that it has completed a “slash of strikes against Iran” carried out in response to earlier Iranian attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed on Thursday that it targeted al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan’s eastern desert with a ballistic missile, destroying three F-35 fighter jets and seriously damaging three others, according to Iranian media.
The statement from the Revolutionary Guards came hours after a missile struck a house on Qeshm Island, killing three people, during a wave of US attacks across southern Iran, Mehr News Agency reported.
In response to the US attack, the Revolutionary Guards had announced that it would fight back against the “invaders”.
Kuwait announced Thursday morning that one worker was killed in an Iranian attack on a Chinese company’s building in the country’s north.
The Revolutionary Guards this morning claimed responsibility for the attack on Kuwait’s Ali al-Salem military base, where U.S. troops are stationed.
The Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that its aerospace forces attacked a deployment ramp and maintenance hangar housing U.S. F-35 fighter jets at al-Azraq Air Base with several ballistic missiles, describing the attack as retaliation for a U.S. attack on two homes on Iran’s Qeshm Island.
The IRGC claimed that three F-35 fighter jets were completely destroyed and three others sustained significant damage.
It also claimed that several police officers, engineers and maintenance personnel were killed in the attack.
Two drone hangars and a fuel tank for aircraft and military helicopters were set on fire and destroyed, a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency said.
The new airstrikes came hours after US President Donald Trump vowed to attack Iran “very hard” after targeting a US military base in Jordan.
The latest wave of attacks by the US began at 20pm ET on Wednesday (1am BST on Thursday) and lasted for about an hour, with Central Command calling it a “forceful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attack on US forces based in the Middle East.” Centcom announced that all Iranian missiles had been intercepted.
The U.S. strike targeted “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities,” Centcom wrote after the strike was completed.
Iran said the islands of Qeshm and Abadan, which are central to its oil industry, were among the affected areas.
Iranian state media said the airstrike killed three people on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, and said other locations in the country’s south and west were also hit. Explosions were also reported in the country’s western province of Khuzestan.
Citing information from the Hormozgan Medical University, Spokesman Fars reported, “Three members of the family were killed in a US attack on a house in Char Tangu district, Qeshm province. A father, mother and a two-year-old child were killed.”
Meanwhile, the Jordanian military announced on Thursday that its air defense systems had successfully shot down five Iranian missiles aimed at Saudi territory.
On Tuesday, the Revolutionary Guards said it had targeted a US air base and command center in Jordan “in response to acts of American military aggression that kill children.”
It also revealed that three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz “ignored warnings” and sailed through what was described as an “unsafe and illegal route” through the vital Gulf waterway.
The Revolutionary Guard shot down a hostile drone over the southwestern port city of Bandar Imam Khomeini early Thursday, Tasnim news agency said.
Local units of the Revolutionary Guards said the drone was intercepted and destroyed in the city’s airspace. Fragments of the crashed drone struck Bandar Imam Khomeini’s residence, but there was no loss of life as a result of the accident, the statement said.
After the drone was identified, Revolutionary Guard weapons disposal teams secured the wreckage, neutralized any potential hazards and removed it from the scene, Tasnim news agency said.
Elsewhere, a drone attack set fire to two natural gas ships at Egypt’s Damietta port, British maritime security firm Ambry said.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attacks on a U.S.-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker at the port, but no injuries were reported.
After several days of relative calm, flare-ups on multiple fronts raised the risk of a return to full-scale war. It also underscored the difficulty of quelling a five-month conflict that has rocked the global economy and is unpopular among Americans at home.
The fighting is also likely to raise concerns that the United States is further depleting its already dwindling stockpile of advanced weapons needed to protect its bases and allies.
Egypt, a close U.S. ally and regional mediator, is one of the only countries in the Middle East to escape direct military action during the war. A confirmed attack by Iran or its allies would mark a significant escalation in a conflict that has already spilled over into multiple countries.
Asked at an Oval Office event whether Iran was responsible for the attack on the natural gas ship, Trump said, “About the same.”
“In the meantime, it’s our turn to attack them, so we’re going to attack them hard,” he added.
