Iran attacks US base in Jordan, captures American submarine drone in Strait of Hormuz

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it fired ballistic missiles at a base in Jordan used by the U.S. military and attacked 10 ships on Wednesday, after the U.S. said it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers. The IRGC also claimed that it had captured a U.S. uncrewed submarine at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.

Increased attacks by both the U.S. 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 Americans said they destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday. The U.S. military’s Central Command posted video of the strikes, which it called a response to IRGC targeting a U.S. Navy warship twice with ballistic missiles over the previous two days. No Americans were harmed, the U.S. said.

“Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” U.S. 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 U.S. forces near Al Azraq in Jordan, according to an IRGC statement on state media.

Although Iran said its missiles inflicted heavy damage, Jordan said its air defences intercepted 18 of the 20 Iranian missiles, with two falling in unpopulated areas, and that there were no casualties. A U.S. official said Iran’s strikes in Jordan were ineffective and all American troops were accounted for.

The IRGC said on Wednesday it also attacked 10 ships, including two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers, attempting to cross a “prohibited and unsafe” area of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy conduit largely choked off by Iranian attacks.

Iran has targeted U.S. assets and allies in the region throughout the war, including in Jordan several times, killing at least two U.S. military personnel during one strike in July.

Iran has also threatened oil tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, according to a statement carried by state media. A maritime security source reported a liquefied natural gas tanker was damaged in the Emirati port of Khor Fakkan, though it was unclear who was responsible.

As for the US submersible, Iranian state media said the vessel was a Dive-LD, a large autonomous underwater vehicle built by California defense firm Anduril. The 19-foot (5.8-metre) submersible can carry out missions including mine countermeasures, seabed mapping, intelligence gathering and the inspection of underwater infrastructure such as cables and pipelines, the company has said.

“We trapped one of the most modern, intelligent and unmanned submarines of the terrorist American army at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. This submersible is equipped with the latest technologies,” the Revolutionary Guards Navy said in a statement carried by Iranian state media.

In response, a Pentagon spokesperson said an underwater drone had “malfunctioned more than a day ago.”

“It was surveying regional waters in support of ongoing operations. The defective drone was an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment,” the spokesperson said.

Anduril confirmed the loss of one of its vessels, but downplayed the significance of the incident.

(With agency inputs)