Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) said it fired ballistic missiles at a base in Jordan used by the US military and attacked 10 ships on Wednesday, after the US said it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers, in a sharp escalation of the six-month-old war.
Increased attacks by both the US and Iran have shattered a month of relative calm, hitting military, shipping and energy assets, sending oil prices surging and drawing in regional allies in recent days.
The US military’s Central Command posted video of the strikes, which it called a response to IRGC targeting a US Navy warship twice with ballistic missiles over the previous two days. No Americans were harmed, the US said.
“Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.
Iran then carried out a ballistic missile attack on a base used by US forces near Al Azraq in Jordan, according to an IRGC statement on state media.
