IRAN’S Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) struck the US-run Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan with a missile barrage on Wednesday, leaving an A-10 Thunderbolt without a wing and around eight F-15 fighter jets damaged, after American forces attacked several Iranian commercial and oil vessels.
The IRGC said its Aerospace Force hit maintenance hangars, aircraft preparation facilities and shelters housing F-35, F-16 and F-15 warplanes at the base, also known as al-Azraq, about 100 kilometres from Amman, inflicting ‘heavy damage’.
‘Faced with the heroic and powerful naval forces of the IRGC in the Strait of Hormuz, the enemy, from a position of incapacity, helplessness, and weakness, resorted to desperate actions and immediately received a decisive response,’ it said.
A CBS correspondent reported on X that ‘American forces in Jordan launched more than 30 Patriot missiles defending against the Iranian strikes’, adding weight to reports that months of war have run down US interceptor stocks.
The base has been hit repeatedly since Washington and Tel Aviv launched their war of aggression on 28th February.
They were forced to accept a ceasefire on 8th April, but in July the United States resumed air raids and imposed a naval blockade, breaching the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding of 17th June.
Iran answered with strikes on American targets across West Asia and closed the strait to all traffic.
IRGC spokesman Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi said on Wednesday the United States could not sustain a long-term presence in the region. ‘It faces severe attrition, both in terms of the morale of its military forces in the region and its weapons and warships,’ he said.
Before the war, between 30 and 40 American warships were inside the Persian Gulf. Today, not one remains.
‘US warships have distanced themselves at least 400 kilometres from the Strait of Hormuz,’ he said, while Iranian forces continue to target vessels attempting transit and the American assets escorting them.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, wrote on X: ‘Iran’s Navy just sent a clear message: The security and stability of the Persian Gulf are managed by Iran.
‘To the remaining forces: Save what’s left of your gear and head home while you still can, and focus on defending your own borders!’
