Jordan came under a second Iranian missile barrage in three days on Tuesday, with strikes aimed at a U.S. military facility near the Red Sea port city of Aqaba, as an escalating exchange of fire between Washington and Tehran spread across the region.
The Jordanian Armed Forces said the kingdom had been “targeted by a missile attack that originated from Iranian territory,” reporting that air defenses engaged 13 ballistic missiles entering Jordanian airspace. Ten were intercepted and destroyed; the remaining three landed in remote areas away from population centers. No injuries or deaths were reported.
A U.S. source told Al Jazeera that the attack targeted Camp Titin, a U.S. military facility near Aqaba, but caused no injuries or major damage. Two U.S. officials told Reuters no American casualties had been reported, and a U.S. official told ABC News that American forces shot down Iranian missiles during the attack.
Iran’s account of the strike differed sharply. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed its Aerospace Force carried out a “heavy ballistic missile attack” on Camp Titin, alleging numerous American personnel were killed and several facilities and attack helicopters destroyed. Those claims were not corroborated by U.S. or Jordanian authorities.
Jordan said its surveillance and air-defense systems remained on high alert as its military continued monitoring the situation.
Trump’s warning
President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Iran during a phone call with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst as U.S. forces conducted a fresh round of strikes across southern Iran.
“If they do respond, they’ll be hit much harder,” Trump said. “This is a very big hit today. If it goes a third time, they’re going to be totally wiped out as a country.”
Washington said the strikes were retaliation for Iranian threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and for the earlier missile attack on U.S. forces in Jordan. Trump told Yingst the United States had struck “a lot of radar,” saying American forces deliberately waited until Iran had nearly finished rebuilding systems destroyed in previous attacks before hitting them again.
“They tried to rebuild their radar because they can’t see anything,” Trump said. “We waited until it was almost built and then we hit it.”
U.S. officials described this approach to Axios ahead of Tuesday’s operation, with one calling it “mowing the lawn” — a strategy of periodically striking Iranian radar, air-defense and anti-ship missile capabilities as Tehran tries to rebuild them around the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump also pointed to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which arrived in the region last week, as evidence of American readiness for further action. “The George Washington is loaded to the gills,” he said. “We’re loaded up.”
Days of escalation
Tuesday’s attack on Jordan was the second in three days. U.S. Central Command struck two IRGC launchers on Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday, saying Iranian forces were preparing rockets carrying sea mines for launch into the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles toward U.S. forces in Jordan, where defenses intercepted eight of them.
CENTCOM said U.S. forces began a new round of strikes against IRGC targets at noon ET Tuesday, citing recent attempted attacks on commercial shipping in the strait and on American service members in the region. The command later confirmed the strikes hit IRGC air-defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites, and said the operation had been completed successfully by Tuesday evening.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said the operation was retaliation for both Iran’s attempted deployment of sea mines and its earlier missile attack on the U.S. base in Jordan, warning that any further Iranian response would bring strikes at a “much harder and higher level.”
Iranian media reported strikes across southern Iran, including Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Chabahar, Konarak, Jask and Sirik, as well as the outskirts of Ahvaz in the southwest. Iranian authorities claimed four people, including a child, were killed and more than 50 wounded when a residential home hosting a wedding near Sirik was struck. Iran’s Foreign Ministry blamed the United States for the strike, and the IRGC cited it in announcing what it called a second wave of retaliation.
The exchange widened further Tuesday evening as Kuwait and Bahrain reported activating air defenses against incoming Iranian drones. Kuwait’s military said its defenses responded to “hostile drones” linked to Iranian aggression, with no immediate reports of injuries or damage in either country. Iran’s army said its drones were targeting radar installations and areas housing U.S. forces at Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.
CENTCOM said more than 50,000 American service members across the Middle East remained “vigilant, lethal, and prepared to continue executing operations directed by the Commander in Chief.”
A ceasefire offer, rejected
Hours before the latest escalation, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was prepared to return to the June ceasefire framework if Washington resumed what Iran considers its commitments under the agreement.
Trump dismissed the prospect later that day. “I think an agreement with them isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” he told Fox News. “We gave them a lot of chances.”
