Iran says it killed ‘large number’ of US forces in Jordan; America says no casualties

Iran claimed on Wednesday that it had killed a “large number” of US forces in a missile and drone attack on American military facilities in Jordan, while US officials told Reuters that no American casualties had been reported so far.

The claim came as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched a combined missile and drone assault on US bases in Iraq’s Erbil, escalating a widening confrontation between Tehran and Washington across the region.

Two US officials told Reuters there were no casualties from the Iranian attack on facilities in Jordan based on initial information, while cautioning that the situation could change as Iranian attacks continued.

Jordan’s armed forces, meanwhile, said its air-defence systems dealt with 13 ballistic missiles that entered the kingdom’s airspace. Ten were intercepted and destroyed, while three fell in remote areas away from population centres, according to state media.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also said they had carried out missile and drone attacks against US bases in Erbil, in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, according to Iranian state media.

The attacks followed US military action against Iran on Tuesday. Axios had reported that US forces also attacked two Iranian government tankers.

The latest exchanges mark another sharp escalation in hostilities, with Iranian attacks extending beyond Jordan to US-linked military positions in Iraq and other Gulf states.

Bahrain, separately, said on Wednesday that its air-defence systems had intercepted and destroyed Iranian drones over the kingdom. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) separately confirmed that American forces had begun strikes on targets belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“Today at 12 p.m. ET, U.S. forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran. The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region,” CENTCOM said in a post.