Putri Anggraini
Jordanian air defense units intercepted a major barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles overnight on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, thwarting an attack aimed at the kingdom’s Al-Azraq airbase where United States military personnel and aircraft are deployed.
According to the Jordanian Armed Forces, a total of 20 ballistic missiles were fired toward the facility during the assault. Defense systems successfully neutralized 18 of the incoming projectiles, while the remaining two landed in uninhabited open terrain, leaving no reported casualties in their wake.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps quickly asserted responsibility for the operation, describing it as a devastating strike on the installation, which is officially known as Muwaffaq Salti Air Base. In an announcement published by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the IRGC stated that the barrage struck aircraft shelters as well as maintenance, preparation, and deployment infrastructure for American F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighter jets.
Officials in Washington offered a sharply contrasting assessment of the incident. A Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that the missile salvo caused no injuries or deaths among American personnel. The official characterized the Iranian bombardment as ineffective when confronted by integrated air and missile defense networks.
The strikes on Jordanian soil represent the latest expansion of an increasingly volatile standoff between Washington and Tehran. The immediate catalyst for this week’s exchange includes retaliatory actions surrounding mutual strikes on commercial oil tankers navigating through the Strait of Hormuz.
Regional friction intensified two weeks earlier when American forces targeted rocket launching positions situated on Iran’s Larak Island within the Strait of Hormuz. Washington asserted that Tehran intended to utilize those launchers to deploy sea mines across the vital waterway, prompting Iranian forces to respond against American sites across neighboring Gulf states before broadening their targeting parameters to include Jordan.
Situated in the Zarqa governorate within Jordan’s Eastern Desert, the Al-Azraq installation sits approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of the capital, Amman. The base bears the name of Lieutenant Muwaffaq Salti, a Jordanian military aviator killed during combat with Israeli forces in the 1966 Battle of Samu.
The airbase serves as an essential strategic platform for foreign military cooperation. Amman and Washington cemented their operational partnership in 2021 by signing a comprehensive defense cooperation agreement that afforded American forces and military contractors authorized access to 12 different defense facilities situated across the kingdom.
Security analysts point to the base’s high-value infrastructure as the primary driver behind Tehran’s repeated focus on the site. Tahani Mustafa, an international relations lecturer at King’s College London’s Department of War Studies, observed that Al-Azraq is among a select group of installations accommodating advanced aircraft such as F-35, F-16, and F-22 fighter jets. Mustafa noted that the base’s specialized hangars, utilized by the Americans to shelter their air assets, have made it a focal point for Iranian strikes.
The military presence at Al-Azraq forms part of a broader American footprint within the country. According to a 2026 report compiled by the US Congressional Research Service, Jordan provides lodging for approximately 4,000 American military personnel across multiple locations.
In addition to the personnel stationed at the desert airbase in Zarqa, American forces operate out of King Faisal Air Base in southern Jordan. Troops are also deployed to Tower 22, a remote military logistics outpost situated in the northeastern corner of the country close to the tripartite border area shared with Syria and Iraq.
The latest missile salvo is part of a recurring pattern of Iranian attacks directed at the Muwaffaq Salti facility. Between March and September, Tehran claimed responsibility for launching strikes against the base on more than 10 separate occasions, with initial aerial bombardments commencing in early March.
A notable escalation occurred on June 10, when Iran claimed it fired long-range missiles at Al-Azraq alongside US-linked bases in Bahrain and Kuwait. That barrage followed American strikes on Iranian positions in the Strait of Hormuz, which were conducted a day after a US Apache helicopter crashed near the strategic waters. Although the IRGC claimed it had destroyed command centers and hangars in that instance, regional authorities confirmed all incoming munitions were successfully intercepted without casualties.
Tensions escalated even further during a July 17 strike, when Iran launched a combined volley of drones and ballistic missiles against Al-Azraq, asserting it had wrecked fighter aircraft and aerial refueling planes. US Central Command subsequently acknowledged American casualties from the July assault, confirming that two service members were killed in action, four sustained injuries, and one remained unaccounted for.
With naval operations and aerial strikes continuing across both the Persian Gulf and neighboring territories, the repeated targeting of Jordan's Al-Azraq installation underlines the expanding geographical footprint of the ongoing confrontation between Washington and Tehran.
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