What is Jordan’s Al-Azraq base and why is Iran targeting it?
Tehran appears to be increasingly targeting Jordanian assets in the latest round of escalation with the US.
As the United States and Iran trade strikes on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz this week, Iran has also launched several ballistic missiles towards Jordan’s Al-Azraq airbase, which hosts US military assets and personnel, in what it has called retaliatory attacks.
The Jordanian Armed Forces said 18 of 20 missiles had been intercepted and destroyed overnight on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning, while two fell in open areas. No casualties have been reported.
Overnight, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had launched “devastating” missile strikes at US forces stationed at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, also known as Al-Azraq base, near Azraq in Jordan’s Zarqa governorate.
In the following weeks, Iran claimed to have hit the Al-Azraq base multiple times, inflicting heavy damage to US assets stationed there.