The US struck Iran for the first time in five weeks. The answer landed in Jordan.
The United States struck Iran on Sunday for the first time in five weeks. By dawn on Monday the answer had landed in Jordan.
The target was Larak Island. American forces hit two Iranian rocket launchers there on August 30, in what The Jerusalem Post reported was the first US strike on Iran since late July. The rockets were reportedly armed with sea mines, per Axios reporting the Post cited.
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That is the strike. Where it happened is the part worth slowing down for.
Larak Island sits inside the Strait of Hormuz, the passage between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. It is the water every ship leaving the Gulf has to pass through.
Iran's answer arrived with a name. The Revolutionary Guard called it Punishment of the Aggressor, and it sent missiles and drones at two bases in Jordan, King Hussein and Al Azraq, both of which host American forces. Al Jazeera reported the operation and its target list.
Jordan says it intercepted eight missiles that crossed into its airspace at dawn on Monday. No injuries were reported at either base.
That is the exchange. Two other things happened around it.
The Revolutionary Guard shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, according to Al Jazeera. And Iran's state-run Fars News reported that witnesses at Larak heard explosions and that the Guard said the American strike killed and wounded people there. No figures were given with that claim, and none have been confirmed by anyone else.
Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said his country is not looking for war but would never sit still in the face of any aggression.
The war is in its seventh month. It began in late February.
Five weeks of quiet ended in a day.
By the numbers
- two — Iranian rocket launchers struck on Larak Island on August 30, the first US strike on Iran since late July[1]
- eight — missiles Jordan says it intercepted at dawn on Monday, with no injuries reported at either base[2]
- seven months — the length of the war as of late August 2026, having begun in late February[3]
The reporting
This story is built on reporting by The Jerusalem Post. Read the original →
Sources
- The Jerusalem Post, US strikes Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island
- Al Jazeera, US strikes Iran's Larak Island in first attack in weeks
- Wikipedia, Muwaffaq Salti Air Base
- Wikimedia Commons, Strait of Hormuz (MODIS, 2020-12-04)
Image credits
- Hero: source (US Marine Corps photo, public domain) — Sgt. Joealfred Damaso
- In story: source (NASA image, public domain) — MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- In story: source (US Air Force photo, public domain) — Tech. Sgt. Caycee Cook