US President has vowed forceful retaliation after Iranian ballistic missiles targeted US forces in Jordan. “We are going to beat the f* out of them.”
“We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating,” Trump said, according to Fox News.
Trump said he had watched footage of the missile interception, which showed US personnel monitoring the incoming ballistic missiles in real time, relaying their coordinates and intercepting each one before it could hit the base.
‘Cancer on the world’
The interview also covered the overnight on Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militias. Fox News reported that Trump said the operation had been carried out in coordination with the Iraqi government. He also referred to the militias as “a cancer on the world” and suggested that further action against Iran-backed proxy groups was still being considered.
Saudi Arabia has confirmed that it joined US forces in carrying out strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq. Meanwhile, several other Gulf nations played a more limited role by launching attacks on Iranian positions near the coastal city of Bandar Abbas.
‘Surprise attack on US forces’
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles from its territory late on Tuesday in what it described as an “attempted surprise attack” on American forces deployed in the Middle East. According to the military, every incoming missile was successfully intercepted before it could strike its intended target.
In a post on X, CENTCOM said, “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on US forces based in the Middle East.”
Although CENTCOM did not specify which installation had been targeted, Axios, citing US officials, reported that the missiles were directed at a US military base in Jordan.
The fighting came after days in which mediators said some progress had been made in negotiations to end the war, which began February 28 with American and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Though the two sides signed an interim deal in June, intense bombing resumed this month over disagreements on how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway crucial for the world’s energy supplies that Iran effectively shut down during the war.
The latest attacks underscored the challenges facingin his efforts to bring the conflict to an end. The prolonged fighting has driven up the cost of fuel and other essential goods well beyond the region, while also becoming increasingly unpopular among the American public.
In recent weeks, four US service members have been killed in the conflict. At the same time, the Pentagon has sought additional funding from an increasingly sceptical Congress to meet the war’s mounting costs.
(With inputs from agencies)
