Iranian Missile Strikes Reportedly Damage US Warplanes at Jordan Airbase

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Jordan's Muwaffaq Salti Air Base overnight, reportedly damaging several American military aircraft in one of the more direct hits registered against US assets since the Gulf war entered its sixth month. Reuters, citing a CBS correspondent's on-the-ground reporting, said early Thursday that an A-10 Thunderbolt II, the aircraft nicknamed the "Warthog," suffered a badly damaged wing in the strike, while roughly eight F-15 fighter jets sustained lighter damage. The F-15s were reportedly patched up and returned to service, but the A-10 appears to be out of commission for the near term. Multiple outlets, including regional broadcasters and specialist aviation press, carried similar damage assessments within hours of the strike, though the Pentagon had not issued a formal statement on the extent of the losses at the time of writing.

A Retaliatory Strike Rooted in the Tanker War

The missile barrage did not come out of nowhere. According to US Central Command, the strike was Tehran's answer to American attacks a day earlier on five Iranian oil tankers, vessels Washington describes as part of a shadow fleet financing the IRGC. CENTCOM has said those tanker strikes were themselves a response to two earlier attempts by Iranian forces to target a US Navy warship with ballistic missiles, attacks the vessel is said to have evaded. In retaliation, Iran's Aerospace Force launched around 20 ballistic missiles toward Muwaffaq Salti, a base that has hosted US fighter jet operations and has now been targeted by Iranian forces more than ten times since the conflict began in March.

Jordan's Air Defenses Absorb Most of the Barrage

Jordan's armed forces said their air-defense systems intercepted 18 of the 20 missiles fired at the base, with the remaining two landing in unpopulated areas. Officials in Amman reported no casualties from the attack, even as the strike damaged the fighter jet shelters and maintenance facilities used to prepare and deploy American F-35s, F-16s and F-15s stationed there. The absence of casualties will likely temper, though not eliminate, pressure on Washington for an immediate retaliatory response, particularly given how frequently Al-Azraq, as the base is also known, has come under fire over the course of the war.

A War With No Clear Endpoint

The strike lands against a backdrop of growing unease in Washington about how long this conflict can run. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that senior White House advisers, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have privately told President Donald Trump that Iran may be able to hold out against American military and economic pressure well beyond his current term, potentially stretching the war past the next presidential inauguration in January 2029. A White House spokesperson pushed back on that framing, telling the Journal that Trump has "destroyed Iran's military capabilities" and is squeezing Tehran's economy through a naval blockade and sanctions. Iran, for its part, has continued to demonstrate an ability to strike US-linked bases across the region even as it faces mounting losses at sea, including the sinking of tankers central to its oil export revenue. With the Strait of Hormuz still a flashpoint and both sides trading strikes on a near-daily basis, Thursday's attack on Jordan is unlikely to be the last test of how far this war extends before either side blinks.

This is an original summary based on public reporting. See our editorial policy for how we source, write, and correct our stories.