The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, declared on Wednesday September 9 that they had attacked a United States military base in Jordan, in response to American strikes against Iranian oil tankers.
This attack intended to “punish the aggressor” notably damaged “the places of deployment of F-35, F-16 and F-15 fighter planes, as well as shelters for (of the) combat aircraft » from the American base of Al-Azraq, one hundred kilometers east of Amman, they said, quoted by the official IRNA agency. The Jordanian army said that out of twenty Iranian missiles launched towards the country, eighteen were intercepted and two fell in deserted areas.
Earlier, the guards also announced that they would target tankers in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation, ordering the crews to “leave their ships immediately”according to IRNA.
On Tuesday, the US military announced it had destroyed five oil tankers in the Gulf region in retaliation for recent Guardian attacks on a US military ship. The US military command for the Middle East (CentCom) said in a statement that it had asked the crews to abandon their ship before they were struck.
“Iran continues to try to hit American warships, and every time they do it or try to do it, they’re going to lose tankers, and I think you’ll see that again today (Tuesday) »warned the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, during a visit to Colombia. According to the Iranian Tasnim agency, a “small tanker” Iran suffered an American missile attack near the island of Kharg, in the south of the country, without causing any casualties.
Iran says it seized US underwater drone
But “any attack on Iranian oil tankers will result in strikes by the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran against US bases in the region”warned for his part the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, quoted by state television.
The Revolutionary Guards also claimed on Tuesday that they had seized “one of the US military’s most modern underwater drones at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz”in a press release also relayed by state television. The American army, for its part, declared that one of its drones, a “old model”had broken down in the Strait region, without specifying whether it was the aircraft seized by Iran. State television also confirmed attacks on American buildings on Wednesday, saying it had attacked two destroyers with ballistic missiles.
Tehran and Washington continue to exchange fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz, despite the ceasefire established in April, which suspended the first phase of intense bombing started with the Israeli-American attack against Iran on February 28. Diplomatic negotiations remain at a standstill, with the two parties vying for control of this maritime lock through which a fifth of world oil and gas exports usually pass.
Since the start of the war, traffic there has been virtually paralyzed, disrupting global energy markets and sending crude oil prices soaring. Iran now requires ships to obtain authorization to pass through the strait, a measure firmly rejected by Washington and several countries in the region.
The American government, which, for its part, applies a blockade on Iranian ports, also placed the entire Iranian airline sector on its blacklist on Tuesday, threatening to sanction any organization working with the country’s airlines, the main ones being Mahan Air and Iran Air.
