Read our editorials on the US-Israeli war on Iran here and here.
Iranian ballistic missiles struck the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on the night of September 8, damaging several US aircraft in retaliation to US attacks against Iranian oil tankers, according to an Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) statement released September 8.
Reports given to US monopoly media claim the strikes blew a wing off an A-10 Thunderbolt and lightly damaged eight other US aircraft. Jordan claims that 18 out of 20 Iranian missiles fired were intercepted, and that the remaining two had hit unpopulated areas, inflicting no damage.
Footage taken by an onlooker shows damaged helicopters being driven from the air base following the attack.
The IRGC announced on September 8 that it had captured the US’s Anduril Dive-LD unmanned submarine in the Strait of Hormuz, with the US claiming the following day that an unspecified underwater drone had malfunctioned over the past few days. Anduril co-founder Palmer Lucky announced on September 9 that the vessel had been captured, and the IRGC has published footage of the vessel in their possession.
The IRGC targeted two US vessels and eight oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and 10 vessels that attempted to bypass the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement published September 8.
The US attacked three Iranian oil tankers in the Persian Gulf on September 5, claiming that the IRGC had carried out unprovoked and failed strikes against two US warships in nearby waters earlier that day. The IRGC claims that the warships were harassing Iranian vessels and were attempting to enforce the US naval blockade of Iran, and that the Iranian strikes had forced the warships to flee.
The US later targeted five Iranian oil tankers on September 8, claiming that the IRGC had fired missiles at an unspecified US warship over the two days prior. No evidence of the IRGC attack has been produced.
Iranian top security official Major General Mohsen Rezai announced on September 6 that a new restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz would be established from the US Navy blockade line and into parts of the Persian Gulf. Vessels that head toward the Strait within the zone without coordination with Iran would face sanctions, he added.
In the beginning of September, shortly after the US broke the month-long pause of combat, the US reduced its air defense time slot for oil tankers attempting to break the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz to two daily windows following Iranian strikes on ships attempting to bypass the blockade at night, according to a Financial Times report published September 12.
Iran’s retaliation comes alongside Yemeni resistance force Ansar Allah’s lightning ground offensive, seizing strategic ports along the Red Sea from the Saudi-backed Yemeni sell-out government. Ansar Allah is now better positioned to control the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which has been used as a backup to the Strait of Hormuz since Iran’s blockade. US officials told Reuters that conflict with Ansar Allah could worsen the already-dwindling US stockpiles of munitions.
Image: The Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. Credit: Retrieved from Press TV.
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