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Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes targeting Jordan on Wednesday, September 9, hitting the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base used by American forces, following an earlier US military attack on Iranian vessels.
In an official statement reported by the state-backed IRNA news agency, Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced that they "struck the American Al-Azraq base in Jordan with heavy missile strikes" as part of a designated "punitive operation". Shortly after the barrage, the Jordanian military announced that its air defence network intercepted and neutralised the incoming projectiles. According to an official army statement, Jordan's defence systems detected 20 incoming ballistic missiles, successfully destroying 18 of them, while two impacted unpopulated terrain. The escalation follows actions by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), which confirmed that American forces targeted five Iranian tankers connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday, September 8. The action came in retaliation against repeated missile assaults directed at a US Navy warship over the preceding 48 hours. CENTCOM specified that US assets struck four crude oil carriers situated in the Gulf of Oman alongside a fifth vessel near Kharg Island inside the Persian Gulf. Officials added that the targeted US warship successfully bypassed the incoming attacks, maintained its regional patrol route, and reported zero American casualties, while crews aboard the tankers were instructed to evacuate prior to the strikes. Weighing in on the developments during an official visit to Colombia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a direct warning to Tehran, asserting that Washington will retaliate continuously if Iranian forces target American naval assets. Addressing reporters in Barranquilla, Rubio stated, Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships and for every time they do that, or try to do that, theyre going to lose tankers. Amid the escalating exchange of strikes, international energy markets reacted swiftly, pushing oil prices upward for the fourth consecutive session. Brent crude futures climbed by USD 1.57, translating to a 1.6 per cent increase, reaching USD 94.49 per barrel during early Wednesday trading. Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate crude traded at USD 94.63 per barrel, marking an advance of USD 1.60, or 1.72 per cent. In a parallel development, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards claimed responsibility for seizing an uncrewed American submarine near the gateway of the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media outlets identified the captured hardware as a Dive-LD, representing a large autonomous underwater vehicle manufactured by the California-based defence contractor Anduril. The 19-foot submersible is engineered to perform diverse operations, including mine countermeasures, seabed mapping, intelligence gathering, and the examination of submerged critical infrastructure such as cables and pipelines, according to manufacturer specifications. Announcing the seizure through state media, the Revolutionary Guards Navy declared, "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." Countering the Iranian claims, a Pentagon spokesperson clarified that an underwater drone had experienced technical failure more than a day prior. Explaining the operational context, the spokesperson stated that the unit "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." (ANI)
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