Tehran (AFP) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday they pummelled a US military base in Jordan, vowing retaliation for American strikes on Iranian oil tankers that dragged the foes deeper into war. Tehran’s bombs came after US forces destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday in response to Iran targeting an American warship, the second such attack in less than a week.
The United States and Iran are locked in a stalemate six months into the war, with Iran maintaining a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for the world’s oil and gas, and Washington pushing a campaign to choke Iran’s ports and economy. The Islamic republic said on Wednesday it would target oil tankers off US-allied Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for the strikes on its tankers.
Minutes later, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards — the most powerful arm of the Iranian military — said they had struck the US air base of Al-Azraq in Jordan with missiles, state media reported. The “punitive operation” damaged maintenance and repair facilities, deployment locations, and shelters for fighter jets, according to IRNA. Jordan’s army said it shot down 18 missiles from Iran targeting the kingdom.
The strikes came after Tehran urged crews on oil tankers off Kuwait and Bahrain to leave their vessels, warning they “will be targeted,” the Guards said in a statement posted on IRNA.
– Oil prices rise –
The latest flare-up was triggered after US forces destroyed five Iranian oil tankers, with the US military saying it “directed the crews to abandon ship” before hitting the vessels. “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, and I think you’ll see that again today,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday on a visit to Colombia.
Iranian media reported Tuesday that a US missile struck a tanker off the coast of Kharg Island, adding that there were no casualties. The chief of staff of Iran’s army, Ali Abdollahi, had warned the Islamic republic would hit US bases in the region if Iranian oil tankers were hit.
Global oil prices climbed on Wednesday to near $100 a barrel as the war threatened to further choke supply from the crude-rich Middle East. The price of Brent crude, the benchmark international contract, rose to $99.38 per barrel, while the main US contract, West Texas Intermediate, was at $94.51 per barrel.
Iran has largely controlled the Strait of Hormuz — which normally carries around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas — since the start of the war in February, with traffic through the waterway virtually paralysed. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also said on Tuesday they seized “one of the most modern, unmanned” American submarine drones in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military said that the drone had “malfunctioned,” insisting it was an “older model” that did not carry any sensitive data. Iranian state TV also said the Guards had attacked two US destroyers with ballistic missiles. The US military did not immediately comment on the report.
© 2024 AFP
