Iran targets US bases in Jordan and Gulf after Trump orders strike near Hormuz
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they carried out missile and drone attacks on US military bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain on Wednesday in retaliation for US strikes on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz.
The clash marks the biggest exchange in the conflict since the two countries agreed to a ceasefire in April and comes after US President Donald Trump said Iran had shot down a US Apache helicopter near the border on Tuesday.
“I believe the response has to be very strong, very strong, and what this is,” Trump told ABC News on Tuesday.
The escalation of violence raises doubts about the chances of an agreement to end the war that began on February 28 with joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran.
Tehran responded by firing on Gulf neighbors that host US bases and all but choked the road, a key oil and gas route.
The latest US strikes have targeted Iran’s air defenses, ground control stations and radar surveillance sites, according to the US military.
They stayed for about four hours before US Central Command posted just before 9pm ET that it was over. A US official said about 20 Iranians were attacked.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the island of Qeshm and the port city of Sirik in the Strait of Hormuz were attacked, while explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas and later near Jask at the entrance to the strait, Iranian media reported, citing local sources and civilians.
The IRGC said it attacked US military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan with drones and missiles in response to new “US aggression”.
Four sites were targeted at the US al-Azraq base in Jordan using long-range missiles, including F-35 fighter jet hangars and a command and control center, and the IRGC warned that it was ready to deliver a “severe and decisive” response to any US attack.
The Jordanian military said on Wednesday it intercepted five missiles fired from Iran towards al-Azraq. Debris from the covert operation fell on Jordanian territory but did not cause injuries or material damage, it added.
The Kuwaiti military said its air defense systems are targeting aerial attacks and has urged the public to follow official safety instructions, while Bahrain’s air defenses have repelled the Iranian attack, a press adviser to the king of Bahrain told X Post.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran criticized the American strikes in the south of the country, said that Tehran acted in self-defense, and warned the Gulf countries that they will face the consequences if their territory is used by the US or Israeli forces, vowing to identify the sources of any future attacks.
A U.S. official, who did not want to be named, said preliminary tests showed that almost all missiles and drones launched by Iran were intercepted and that they were not immediately aware of reports of injuries to U.S. personnel or damage to U.S. facilities.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not immediately confirm the battlefield reports.
Oil prices rose about 1% in Asian trade on Wednesday following the escalation of tensions.
ISN’T IT?
On Tuesday, a US Apache helicopter was shot down by an Iranian attack plane, according to a US official who did not want to be named.
The two American pilots involved in the helicopter crash were not injured, Trump said.
Iran’s state media quoted a military source as saying that no offensive air force operations were conducted in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.
A US military aircraft found and rescued the two crew members, the US military said, after a US Army helicopter went down in the water near the coast of Oman while on patrol at around 03:00 on Tuesday.
The US military’s Central Command did not give a reason for the crash. It said the two workers were rescued two hours later and said they were in stable condition – a more cautious assessment than Trump’s description.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi did not directly mention the helicopter incident, but in his post on X that foreign forces in the region are at risk of being involved in accidents or crossfires.
“To reduce the risk, the best solution is for them to leave,” he wrote.
Trump told The Wall Street Journal during a phone call on Tuesday that the helicopter incident was “no big deal” and insisted that “the pilot is fine.”
However, the episode could add difficulty to efforts to broker a peace deal to end the wider Middle East conflict and reopen Hormuz.
Trump has also said that Iran and the United States are close to a deal, although there have been few signs of progress since hard work began in early April.
Fighting between Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has continued, and Tehran has maintained its restrictions on many ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried a fifth of its crude oil and liquefied natural gas.
Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday that shipping through Hormuz was increasing “significantly,” but added that it would take many months to return to normal energy flows once the war is over.
Trump said any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot build a nuclear weapon. Iran denies such ambitions.
Iran’s demands include the lifting of international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its control of the strait.
