JAKARTA - Iranian elite forces claim to have successfully destroyed a US stealth fighter jet in an attack by a neighboring country, while US military command dismissed it as a false claim.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Thursday claimed it targeted Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan's eastern desert with a ballistic missile, destroying three F-35 fighter jets and damaging three others, according to Iranian media.
In a statement, the IRGC said its air force attacked the launch pad and maintenance hangar housing US F-35 fighter jets at Al-Azraq Air Base with several ballistic missiles, describing the attack as a response to a US attack on two residential houses on Qeshm Island, Iran, quoted from Anadolu (31/7).
In addition to damaging and destroying the US aircraft, the IRGC also claimed that several officers, as well as technical and maintenance personnel, were killed in the attack.
In response, the US Central Command (US CENTCOM) in its post on social media X denied the IRGC announcement as a false claim.
"The IRGC claims that three US F-35 stealth fighter jets and three other aircraft were destroyed during Iran's recent attack on an American airbase," tweeted US CENTCOM on X.
"The fact is, no US aircraft was destroyed or damaged in the recent Iranian attack attempt. All missiles and drones were intercepted or failed to reach the target area," he said.
In its upload, US CENTCOM also denied the IRGC's claims regarding safe passage for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and the existence of a commercial tanker, M/T Nora, which managed to break through the US blockade.
The IRGC statement came hours after a missile hit a house on Qeshm Island, wounding two people during a wave of US strikes across southern Iran, according to the Mehr News Agency.
On Thursday morning, the Jordanian military said it had intercepted and shot down five missiles launched from Iran towards the kingdom, marking the fourth consecutive day of such incidents.
A day earlier, Jordan said it had shot down five missiles after intercepting one drone on Tuesday and two drones on Monday.
The development comes as US CENTCOM said American forces launched the attack on Iran in response to what it described as an Iranian attempt to attack US forces in the Middle East the day before.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
