Iran attacks US base in Jordan, ships near Hormuz after tankers sunk

Iran has said ‌it fired ballistic missiles at a base in Jordan used by the US military and attacked 10 ships on Wednesday.The attacks came 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 Americans said they destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday. The US military’s Central Command posted video of the strikes, which it called a response to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeting a US warship twice with ballistic missiles over the previous two days. No Americans were harmed, the US said.READ MORE“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.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 US 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 ⁠US 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 US assets and allies in the region throughout the war, including in Jordan several times, killing at least two US 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.Oil prices extended gains in early trade ⁠on Wednesday with Brent crude nearing $100 a barrel on market concerns over the disruption of ⁠oil tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. ​A woman visits Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran and prays at the graves of loved ones killed during the war between the United States and Israel and Iran. Photogaph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA Recent attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on Saudi Arabia have added to supply concerns.On Tuesday, Houthis launched an attack on several cities in Saudi Arabia, further undermining regional stability.The Houthi attacks wounded 73 people and set oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a major expansion of the conflict, which began on February 28th with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran.The Houthis, who control most of Yemen’s populated areas, including the capital, have further pressured US allies by periodically disrupting shipping on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, at the entrance to the Red Sea.They said they had launched a broad operation deep into Saudi territory, using drones and missiles to strike a Saudi airbase in the southern city of Khamis Mushait as well as Saudi state oil company assets in the cities of Abha, Najran and Jazan.Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis in Yemen for more than a decade, after the Houthis drove the Yemeni government from the capital. That war had calmed in recent years, but a ceasefire there has broken down. – Reuters(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026