Middle East Escalation

Iran Fires Ballistic Missiles at US Base in Jordan and Attacks Regional Ships

Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has fired ballistic missiles at a base in Jordan used by the US military and attacked 10 ships near Hormuz, a significant escalation in the six-month-old war. The U.S. destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday and no Americans were harmed. The IRGC also targeted a base used by U.K. forces near Al Azraq in Jordan, but Jordan said its air defences intercepted 18 of the 20 Iranian missiles, with no casualties. The strikes were seen as a response to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRG) targeting a U.N. Navy warship twice with ballistic missiles over the previous two days. Iran has also threatened oil tankors in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports. The wider war in the Gulf has become a test of wills between the U.