US carries out strikes in southern Iran after IRGC attack on Jordan airbase
The US says the strikes were retaliation for an attempted IRGC ballistic missile attack on a US airbase in Jordan as Iranian state media report explosions in the country's south.
WASHINGTON — US warplanes dropped bombs on military targets in Iran before dawn on Thursday in retaliation for what American military officials said was a thwarted ballistic missile attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a US airbase the previous night.
The US strikes began at 8 p.m. ET (3:30 a.m. local time) in “a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced.
The strikes are the first by the United States on Iranian territory since the White House called off a two-week nightly bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz late last week.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday publicly vowed the United States would retaliate for the alleged Iranian attack, which Al-Monitor and other outlets reported targeted Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
“We’re going to beat the fucking shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News on Wednesday morning.
Later, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon, Trump said, “We are going to be hitting them very hard.”
Referring to the alleged missile attack in Jordan the previous night, he added, “because it’s our turn.”
Ahead of Washington’s retaliatory strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon’s top policy official, Elbridge Colby.
Iranian media reported explosions across southern Iran. State-run Press TV reported a US missile attack in areas around the southwestern city of Abadan, adding that explosions were heard in Bushehr. The official Islamic Republic News Agency said parts of the southern Hormozgan province, including Qeshm island, were hit.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
