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Several US military aircraft sustained damage following overnight Iranian strikes on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on Wednesday.
CBS News, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that an A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft, commonly referred to as the "Warthog," was directly hit and lost a wing in the attack. Additionally, approximately eight F-15 fighter jets suffered minor damage, though all were subsequently repaired and returned to operational service. No American casualties or fatalities were reported from the strikes on the Jordanian base, CBS News reported. Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes targeting Jordan on Wednesday, 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 followed 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. On the other hand, US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday (local time) that the war with Iran will end immediately after the upcoming US midterm elections, accusing Tehran of holding out in hopes that a change in political power in Washington will allow it to pursue a nuclear weapon. Speaking to reporters before departing for a Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, Trump argued that Tehran is attempting to influence American voters to secure a more lenient administration in Washington. I think the war will end immediately after the election...They're desperate to try and affect the election so that we could get a nice, weak group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapon, Trump said. Asked why he believes the fighting will cease so rapidly after the vote, Trump reiterated that Tehran is running out of options. When pressed on whether he expected diplomatic talks to resume or the military campaign to be restarted, Trump signalled that Washington is in no rush to negotiate, asserting that recent operations have severely weakened the Iranian state. (ANI)
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