Iran Fires 10 Missiles at Jordan; Tehran Accuses U.S. of Hitting Bushehr Perimeter
Iran launched 10 missiles at Jordan and additional drones and missiles at Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar, Times of Israel reported, as Tehran accused U.S. forces of striking the perimeter of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Developing story — this page will be updated as information becomes available.
Iran fired 10 missiles at Jordan on Thursday and launched additional drones and missiles at Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar, Times of Israel reported, widening the Iranian retaliatory campaign beyond the Gulf and into the Levantine kingdom that hosts U.S. forces. Tehran separately accused U.S. forces of striking the perimeter of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Iran’s Gulf coast — an escalation claim that, if confirmed, would mark the first Western attack against Iran’s civil nuclear infrastructure.
What We Know
The Times of Israel reported Iran’s launch of 10 missiles at Jordan alongside drone and missile fire directed at Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Jordan is a U.S. treaty partner, hosts American forces at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base and other facilities, and has been an intermittent target of Iranian and Iran-aligned fire during previous escalations in the current cycle. The reported Jordanian strike opens a new geographic axis in the Iranian retaliation campaign, which until Thursday had concentrated on Gulf Arab states south and east of Iran.
Tehran’s accusation that U.S. forces struck the perimeter of the Bushehr nuclear power plant is Iran’s own claim rather than an independently confirmed U.S. action. Bushehr, on Iran’s Gulf coast in Bushehr Province, is Iran’s only operational civil nuclear reactor, built with Russian assistance and long treated by all sides as an implicit red line. A confirmed strike on the reactor complex itself would risk radiological release; a strike “near” or on the perimeter without hitting the reactor would be a signalling escalation short of that threshold.
The reported Iranian volley follows the U.S. Central Command campaign that struck around 90 targets across five provinces and the second U.S. strike wave overnight that killed a firefighter at Iranshahr airport and hit Chabahar port, as well as a northern rail bridge on the China-Russia corridor. Iran’s earlier Thursday retaliation triggered air-raid sirens across Bahrain.
What We Don’t Know
Impact assessments from the Jordanian strike — whether the 10 missiles were intercepted, whether they struck military or civilian sites, and whether there are casualties — are not yet public. Jordanian and U.S. defense officials had not issued statements at the time of Times of Israel’s report. The specific location and severity of any U.S. action at Bushehr are also unconfirmed by CENTCOM or independent monitors; Iran’s characterization of a “perimeter” strike has not been corroborated by named U.S. officials, satellite analysts, or other primary outlets. The scale of the drone and missile fire on Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar reported by Times of Israel is also still developing. This is a developing story.
Context
Jordan is a NATO Major Non-NATO Ally, hosts thousands of U.S. troops, and has been struck by Iranian retaliation before in the current cycle. A 10-missile volley aimed at the kingdom is a significantly larger salvo than the drone-and-single-missile pattern seen in earlier Levantine retaliation. It widens the theater from the Gulf hosts of U.S. forces to include the kingdom that sits between Iraq and Israel and controls key overland logistics.
The Bushehr accusation echoes the May incident in which CENTCOM denied Iranian claims of activity near the plant. That earlier episode ended without independent confirmation of a strike. The pattern of Iranian claims of U.S. action at Bushehr, followed by U.S. denial, means the current accusation warrants the same caution — but the elevated tempo of the last 48 hours, including oil markets pricing in escalation, raises the stakes on any confirmation either way.
What to Watch
- Jordanian and U.S. confirmation — Whether Amman or CENTCOM confirm the 10 reported missile strikes, provide interception or impact detail, and identify any target sites or casualties.
- CENTCOM on Bushehr — Whether U.S. Central Command directly addresses the Iranian accusation of a perimeter strike, and whether the International Atomic Energy Agency comments on any facility status change.
- Escalation posture — Whether the Trump administration treats the Jordan strike as an Article 5–adjacent attack on allied territory and whether the U.S. response widens to targets outside Iran’s coastal missile order of battle.
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