Hormuz, first exchange of fire since July: raid on Larak, Iran hits bases in Jordan

On Monday, August 31, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed the launch of ballistic missiles and drones against the King Hussein and Al Azraq — also known as Muwaffaq Salti — air bases in Jordan, where the U.S. Air Force’s 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing operates. This is the response to the raid conducted the previous day by U.S. forces on the island of Larak, off Bandar Abbas, against two Iranian rocket launchers: according to a U.S. official, the Pasdaran were preparing to launch rockets with naval mines into the Strait.

This is the first direct exchange of fire between the United States and Iran since July 29, 2026. Until Sunday, the story that the newspaper has been following since August 14 — when we wrote about the two ADNOC merchant ships hit in the Strait — had been moving on the diplomatic and economic plane: as recently as August 30 we were reporting on the framework presented by Oman and Iran for a shared shipping corridor. Those talks, as far as can be determined from today’s material, remain underway while weapons fire resumes.

The second front of the retaliation concerns the United Arab Emirates. The Emirati Ministry of Defense stated that it had intercepted an Iranian drone over its territorial waters and denied that the al-Minhad base had been hit by missiles. Regarding the toll from the Larak raid, the IRGC states that the attack killed and wounded its own fighters and civilians, without providing figures: no verifiable count is available at the time of publication, and on this point the only source is the party that was struck.

The two versions of the raid diverge more in tone than in facts. U.S. Central Command speaks of “a limited and precise action against IRGC mine-laying units” (transl. from English), thus describing a preventive operation; the IRGC describes an attack with civilian casualties. On the Iranian political side, President Masoud Pezeshkian stated: “We are not seeking war, and this is a message we have repeated to the world” (transl. from Persian).

The U.S. naval blockade continues to produce figures. CENTCOM reported that as of August 30 its forces had diverted 83 commercial vessels, disabled three and boarded two to enforce it. These are figures provided by the party conducting the operation and have not been verified by an independent source.

The market effect is visible but contained: Brent was trading around $91 per barrel on Monday morning, compared with $87 on July 31. Four dollars in a month, over the course of which the negotiating framework with Muscat took shape and now the resumption of fighting has occurred.

The story rests on five independent sources: NPR (reporting from Amman and U.S. armed forces communications), The Hill (CENTCOM and IRGC statements via Fars), RFE/RL (a U.S. official and Iranian state media), The Washington Times (IRGC announcement) and Fox News (CENTCOM post). The Iranian claims come through Tehran’s state channels and remain attributed statements; no independent confirmation of damage to the Jordanian bases is available.

To be verified in the coming hours: whether the bases in Jordan sustained damage, what the human toll at Larak is, and whether the talks with Muscat hold up against the resumption of attacks.