Jordan says it downed 18 of 20 Iranian missiles, reports no casualties

Update, 9 September, 06:08 Israel time

New detail has emerged on the American operations Iran cited as its reason for the launches, and on Iranian claims of further action at sea. Ynet reported that CENTCOM confirmed the Revolutionary Guards had twice attempted over two days to hit a US Navy vessel, that the ship evaded the attacks and that there were no casualties. Ynet said the American military responded by destroying five Revolutionary Guard oil tankers, four in the Gulf of Oman and one near Kharg Island.

Separately, Haaretz, citing Reuters, reported that the Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked two US vessels and eight oil tankers in the Gulf, describing the action as a response to the American strikes on the five Iranian tankers. The Guards also said they had struck 10 ships trying to cross a stretch of the Strait of Hormuz that they called prohibited and unsafe, according to the same report, which cited Iranian state media.

Haaretz's liveblog headline also refers to Iranian retaliation against Saudi Arabia alongside Jordan. No detail on any strike in Saudi Arabia appears in the material available, and none of the new reports adds to Jordan's account of the interceptions or alters its casualty figures.

Update, 9 September, 04:08 Israel time

Jordan has issued its first official account of the barrage, giving figures for the first time. The Times of Israel reported that Jordan's state news agency, citing the armed forces, said air defences destroyed 18 of 20 ballistic missiles fired from Iranian territory, with the remaining two coming down in unpopulated areas and no casualties recorded. The agency said monitoring and assessment work was continuing.

The same figures were carried by Israeli outlets. Ynet's alerts channel reported Jordan as saying 20 ballistic missiles were launched from Iran and 18 were intercepted, with no casualties. The foreign desk of N12 reported Jordan saying the two missiles that were not intercepted fell in areas away from population centres.

The Jordanian statement attributes the interceptions to the kingdom's own air-defence systems, which the earlier reports had left open. It does not name a base, address damage at any military facility, or refer to the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base identification made by an analyst citing Jordanian social media footage. No United States statement on the launches appears in the new material.

The story as first reported

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had fired ballistic missiles at an American military base in Jordan, presenting the launches as retaliation for United States strikes on Iranian oil tankers. The Jerusalem Post reported the IRGC confirmation of the missile strikes on a US military base in Jordan, and the foreign desk of the Israeli broadcaster N12 carried the same claim from the Guards, saying the attack was a response to the American operations against the tankers.

Israeli outlets began reporting launches from Iran before the Iranian claim of responsibility was issued. The Times of Israel reported that video shot in Israel showed missiles being intercepted in the skies over neighbouring Jordan, and said there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the barrage. Ynet's alerts channel reported that missiles launched from Iran were intercepted in northern Jordan.

What the Revolutionary Guard is

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a branch of Iran's armed forces separate from the regular army, with its own ground, naval and air arms and control of the country's ballistic missile programme. Statements issued in its name are the standard channel through which Tehran announces and claims military operations abroad, which is why Israeli desks treated the IRGC announcement as the Iranian government's own account rather than as a report from the ground.

Where the missiles were reported to have landed

Jordan sits between Israel and Iraq, and Iranian projectiles aimed at targets further west have previously crossed its airspace. Joe Truzman, a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, wrote that Jordanian accounts had published footage reporting an attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, adding that the base hosts American forces. That identification comes from social media material described by a single analyst and has not been confirmed by the United States, by Jordan or by the Iranian statement, which referred only to an American base in the kingdom.

The Israeli reports are not fully aligned on the target. N12's correspondents described launches towards American bases in Jordan in the plural, while the IRGC statement quoted by both N12 and The Jerusalem Post referred to a single base. Ynet's alert described interceptions in the north of the country. None of the reports gives a number of missiles fired or intercepted.

The tanker strikes behind the Iranian claim

The Iranian statement ties the launches to American attacks on Iranian oil tankers. In its liveblog, The Times of Israel listed related entries from the same day, including a US statement that it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers after ballistic missiles were fired at an American warship, and a warning from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that further Iranian tankers would be sunk if attacks on US warships continued. The same liveblog referenced talks involving France over the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway at the mouth of the Gulf through which a large share of the world's seaborne oil passes.

The threat to Gulf shipping

Alongside the claim of the strike in Jordan, Ynet reported an Iranian statement that it would attack tankers in Kuwait and Bahrain. Both are Gulf states hosting American military facilities, and both sit on the Iranian side of the region's main oil export routes. That threat was reported as an Iranian declaration and no attack on shipping in either country was reported in the material at the time of writing.

Why Israel is watching

Israel shares its longest land border with Jordan, and the two states have had a peace treaty for decades. Missile activity over Jordanian territory is visible from parts of Israel, which is how the footage cited by The Times of Israel came to be filmed. The reports available do not indicate that Israeli territory was targeted or that Israeli air defences were involved.

What the reports do not say

No official statement from the United States military or from the Jordanian government appears in the material. There is no confirmed figure for missiles launched, no assessment of damage at any base, and no casualty information beyond the note that none had been reported immediately. The identity of the base struck rests on footage circulating on Jordanian social media accounts as described by one analyst. It is also unclear who carried out the interceptions reported over Jordan, and whether the missiles that were intercepted are the same ones the IRGC says it fired.