Iran fired a fresh wave of ballistic missiles at U.S. military facilities in Jordan on Tuesday, hours after President Donald Trump warned that Iran could be “totally wiped out as a country” if it kept attacking American forces.
The Jordanian Armed Forces said the kingdom was “targeted by a missile attack that originated from Iranian territory.” Jordanian air defenses engaged 13 ballistic missiles that entered the country’s airspace, shooting down 10 of them. The remaining three landed in remote areas away from population centers. No injuries or deaths were reported.
A U.S. official told ABC News that American forces also shot down Iranian missiles during the attack. Two U.S. officials told Reuters no American casualties had been reported. A U.S. source told Al Jazeera that an Iranian strike aimed at Camp Titin, a U.S. military facility near Aqaba, caused no injuries or major damage.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told a different story, claiming its Aerospace Force carried out a “heavy ballistic missile attack” on Camp Titin that killed numerous American personnel and destroyed facilities and attack helicopters. Neither U.S. nor Jordanian authorities backed up those claims, which directly contradicted the initial American damage assessments.
Jordan said its surveillance and air-defense systems remained on high alert as the military kept monitoring the situation.
Trump’s Warning
Trump delivered his warning during a phone call with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst as U.S. forces carried out a new round of strikes across southern Iran. 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.
“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.”
Tuesday’s barrage was the second Iranian missile attack involving U.S. forces in Jordan in three days, and it came after Trump had already pointed to the first attack as justification for the latest American strikes.
How It Escalated
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 at U.S. forces in Jordan, where Jordanian defenses intercepted eight missiles.
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 of Hormuz and on American service members in the region. The command confirmed that evening the strikes had been completed, and said the operation hit IRGC air-defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities, and communications sites.
Trump told Yingst the U.S. had deliberately let Iran nearly finish rebuilding radar systems destroyed in earlier attacks before striking 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 as periodically striking Iranian radar, air-defense and anti-ship missile capabilities as Tehran tries to rebuild them around the Strait of Hormuz. One official called it “mowing the lawn.”
Trump also pointed to the USS George Washington, the aircraft carrier that arrived in the region last week, as a sign of what further American action could look like.
“The George Washington is loaded to the gills,” Trump told Yingst. “We’re loaded up.”
Strikes Spread Across the Region
Iranian media reported strikes across southern Iran, including Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Chabahar, Konarak, Jask and Sirik. Tasnim later reported a U.S. missile attack also struck the outskirts of Ahvaz in southwestern Iran, where a provincial security official said authorities were assessing damage.
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 during the U.S. operation. 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 against American forces.
The Iranian response widened Tuesday evening as officials in Kuwait and Bahrain reported activating air defenses against incoming Iranian drone attacks. Kuwait’s military said it was responding to “hostile drones” linked to Iranian aggression. No injuries or damage were immediately reported 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.”
Diplomacy Rejected
The escalation came only hours after 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 that offer hours later.
“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.”
