Iran retaliates for US strike with attacks on Jordan, UAE

Iran on Monday struck back at the U.S., carrying out attacks on American military assets at bases in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan after U.S. forces fired at two Iranian rocket launchers over the weekend.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched drones and missiles at the King Hussein and Azraq military bases in Jordan, according to the Iranian state-run news outlet Fars News Agency . The outlet also reported that the IRGC targeted U.S. forces and helicopters at Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE hours later.

The Iranian military described its attack in Jordan as a “necessary and lawful answer” to the U.S. attack on Larak Island, the outlet reported.

“Aggression and crimes will not solve the enemy’s desperation in attempting to weaken the Islamic Republic’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, and every attack will be met with even more devastating responses,” the IRGC said in a statement to Fars.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned the U.S. that his country will “not remain silent in the face of assault.”

“We are not seeking war, and this is a clear message that we have repeatedly communicated to the world,” he said, according to Fars .

The UAE Defense Ministry said it intercepted an Iranian drone over its territorial waters Monday, with the country’s Foreign Ministry calling the attempted attack, which caused no damage, “a dangerous escalation.”

U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command (Centcom), said U.S. forces struck two launchers on Larak Island after U.S. forces observed the IRGC “preparing to launch rockets with sea mines” into the Strait of Hormuz.

Centcom dismissed the IRGC’s claim that the preparation was an act of aggression, calling it false.

“U.S. forces took limited, precise action against IRGC minelaying forces posing an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz,” Centcom stated on the social platform X . “In essence, Iran created the threat and the U.S. military eliminated it to protect civilian mariners, commercial shipping, and the free flow of global commerce.”

Larak Island is located off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, close to the Strait of Hormuz. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of Centcom, said last week that his forces cleared all Iranian sea mines along internationally recognized transit routes in the key waterway.

The back-and-forth marks the first known military action from both sides since late July, as the U.S. seeks to put severe economic pressure on Iran, calling on other countries to cut off their financial ties with the Iranian regime. The U.S. and Iran had been locked in a stalemate for almost a month.

President Trump indicated late Sunday on Truth Social that Iran’s Kharg Island, which holds around 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports and has faced many threats from the president, had “been blown to smithereens!!!”

But National Iranian Oil Company CEO Hamid Bovard said on social media that conditions on Kharg Island, located around 410 miles from Larak Island, were “calm and appropriate.”

“Trump’s tweets are laughable, and conditions in Kharg are calm and appropriate,” Nour News reported Bovard saying, according to Reuters .