What is Jordan’s Al-Azraq base and why is Iran targeting it?

Tehran appears to be increasingly targeting Jordanian assets in the latest round of escalation with the US.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that they had launched missiles at a US base in Al-Azraq in Jordan, in response to US attacks on Iranian oil tankers [Atef Safadi/EPA]

As the United States and Iran trade strikes on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz this week, Iran has also launched several ballistic missiles towards Jordan’s Al-Azraq airbase, which hosts US military assets and personnel, in what it has called retaliatory attacks.

The Jordanian Armed Forces said 18 of 20 missiles had been intercepted and destroyed overnight on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning, while two fell in open areas. No casualties have been reported.

So, what is at the Al-Azraq airbase, and why has Iran targeted it?

The Al-Azraq airbase perimeter is visible on July 25, 2026, in Al-Azraq, Jordan [Salah Malkawi/Getty Images]

What did Iran target in Jordan?

Overnight, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had launched “devastating” missile strikes at US forces stationed at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, also known as Al-Azraq base, near Azraq in Jordan’s Zarqa governorate.

Missiles “struck the maintenance, preparation, and deployment sites of F-35, F-16, and F-15 fighter jets, as well as their shelters, inflicting heavy damage on the enemy”, the IRGC said in the statement reported by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

The Jordanian Armed Forces said the kingdom had engaged 20 ballistic missiles, intercepting and destroying 18 of them, while two fell in open areas.

A Trump administration official in Washington, DC, said the barrage of ballistic missiles fired at US forces in Jordan did not inflict any casualties. “The Iranian response was ineffective against integrated air and missile defences,” the official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

When and why has Iran targeted Jordan?

Iran is targeting Jordanian assets in the latest round of escalation, which began two weeks ago with US attacks on rocket launchers on Iran’s Larak island in the Strait of Hormuz. The US claimed Iran was preparing to use the launchers to scatter sea mines in the strait, and Iran responded with strikes on US assets in neighbouring Gulf countries. It has now widened this to include Jordan.

The US does not publicly reveal the capacities of its foreign military sites and assets, but Jordan is known to host nearly 4,000 US soldiers, according to a 2026 US Congressional Research Service report.

Some of them are stationed at the Al-Azraq base. Jordan also hosts US soldiers at the King Faisal Air Base in southern Jordan, and at so-called Tower 22, a remote US military logistics outpost in northeastern Jordan close to the borders with Syria and Iraq.

In the ongoing war, Tehran has claimed strikes on the Al-Azraq base more than 10 times between March and September. Iran first launched air strikes on Al-Azraq in early March.

On June 10, Iran again claimed to have struck the Al-Azraq airbase, as well as other bases hosting US military personnel and assets in Kuwait and Bahrain, after US forces struck Tehran’s assets in the Strait of Hormuz, a day after a US Apache helicopter had crashed near the waters.

On that occasion , the IRGC said its long-range missiles had destroyed several targets at the Al-Azraq airbase, including hangars and command centres. However, authorities in the countries targeted said all projectiles had been intercepted without casualties.

In the following weeks, Iran claimed to have hit the Al-Azraq base multiple times, inflicting heavy damage to US assets stationed there.

On July 17, Iran claimed it had hit US military aircraft stationed at the Al-Azraq base with ballistic missiles and drones, claiming to have destroyed several refuelling aircraft and fighter jets. US Central Command (CENTCOM) later confirmed that two US service members had been “killed in action” in the Iranian attack, while one was missing and four others were injured.

A combination of satellite images shows an increase in the number of aircraft at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, in Al-Azraq, Jordan, comparing January 16, 2026 with February 2, 2026 [Planet Labs Handout via Reuters]

How important is the Al-Azraq base to Jordan and the US?

The Muwaffaq Salti Air Base near Azraq is located nearly 100km (62 miles) northeast of Amman, in the country’s sparsely populated Eastern Desert. Its official name is a tribute to a Jordanian fighter pilot, Lieutenant Muwaffaq Salti, who was killed in combat with Israel in 1966 in the Battle of Samu.

Amman and Washington signed a defence cooperation agreement in 2021 that granted US forces and contractors access to 12 military installations across the kingdom.

“Al-Azraq base is among the few that host F-35s, F-16s, and F-22s [fighter jets],” said Tahani Mustafa, a lecturer in international relations at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. “It has hangars where the Americans can hide [their assets], and that’s what the Iranians have been targeting.”

The sprawling base, which has two runways, makes it an important asset for the US – and a target for Iran, Mustafa told Al Jazeera.

In the run-up to the US-Israel war on Iran, the base became “a key logistics hub” for US C-17 transport planes and about 60 combat aircraft, David Schenker, a fellow at the Washington Institute, a US think tank, told The Associated Press news agency.

“Jordan provides great strategic depth,” he said, calling the kingdom’s position “essential” to the US war on Iran, given the distance it provides against Iran’s missiles and drones as compared with the GCC countries, which are much closer.

A 2023 report by Washington’s Congressional Research Service underlined that “Jordanian air bases have been particularly important for the US conduct of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions in Syria and Iraq.”

That report also noted that the US “never officially acknowledged its presence at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base prior to the 2021 agreement”, even though “satellite imagery shows it has hosted US Air Force (USAF) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and fast jets since at least 2016”.

In July this year, The New York Times reported that Jordan became more important in the early days of the ongoing war, as a number of US troops stationed in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar were relocated there.

In 2017, the US Congress authorised $143m in air force construction funds to expand the base’s ramp space, reportedly the biggest such project at the time.

在最近一轮与美国的冲突升级中，德黑兰似乎越来越倾向于攻击约旦的资产。

伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队宣布，为报复美国袭击伊朗油轮，他们向位于约旦阿兹拉克的美国基地发射了导弹。[Atef Safadi/EPA]

本周，美国和伊朗在霍尔木兹海峡互相袭击油轮之际，伊朗还向驻有美国军事资产和人员的约旦阿兹拉克空军基地发射了数枚弹道导弹，伊朗称这是报复性袭击。

约旦武装部队称，周二晚间至周三上午，20枚导弹中有18枚被拦截并摧毁，另有两枚落入空旷地带。目前尚​​未收到人员伤亡报告。

那么，阿兹拉克空军基地究竟有什么？伊朗为何要以该基地为攻击目标？

2026 年 7 月 25 日，约旦阿兹拉克空军基地周边清晰可见 [Salah Malkawi/Getty Images]

伊朗在约旦的目标是什么？

伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队（IRGC）连夜宣布，已对驻扎在约旦扎尔卡省阿兹拉克附近的穆瓦法克·萨尔蒂空军基地（又称阿兹拉克基地）的美军发动了“毁灭性”导弹袭击。

据半官方的塔斯尼姆通讯社报道，伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队在一份声明中表示，导弹“袭击了F-35、F-16和F-15战斗机的维护、准备和部署地点及其掩体，给敌人造成了重大损失”。

约旦武装部队表示，该国已拦截并摧毁了 20 枚弹道导弹，其中 18 枚被拦截并摧毁，另有 2 枚落入空旷地带。

一位身在华盛顿特区的特朗普政府官员表示，伊朗向驻约旦美军发射的弹道导弹袭击并未造成任何人员伤亡。这位官员匿名告诉半岛电视台：“伊朗的反击对美军的综合防空和导弹防御系统无效。”

伊朗何时以及为何将约旦作为攻击目标？

在最新一轮冲突升级中，伊朗将目标转向约旦。两周前，美国袭击了位于霍尔木兹海峡伊朗拉拉克岛上的火箭发射装置，冲突由此开始。美国声称伊朗正准备利用这些发射装置在海峡布设水雷，伊朗则以袭击邻近海湾国家的美国目标作为回应。如今，伊朗已将打击范围扩大至约旦。

美国不会公开披露其海外军事基地和资产的规模，但据美国国会研究服务处 2026 年的一份报告显示，约旦驻扎着近 4000 名美军士兵。

他们中的一些人驻扎在阿兹拉克空军基地。约旦还在南部的费萨尔国王空军基地和所谓的“22号塔”（位于约旦东北部，靠近叙利亚和伊拉克边境的一个偏远美军后勤哨所）驻扎着美军士兵。

在持续的战争中，德黑兰方面声称在3月至9月期间对阿兹拉克空军基地发动了十多次袭击。伊朗于3月初首次对阿兹拉克空军基地发动空袭。

6月10日，伊朗再次声称袭击了阿兹拉克空军基地，以及科威特和巴林境内其他驻有美国军事人员和资产的基地。此前一天，一架美国阿帕奇直升机在霍尔木兹海峡附近坠毁，美军随后袭击了德黑兰的资产。

当时，伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队声称其远程导弹摧毁了阿兹拉克空军基地的多个目标，包括机库和指挥中心。然而，被袭击国家的当局表示，所有导弹均已被拦截，未造成人员伤亡。

在接下来的几周里，伊朗声称多次袭击了阿兹拉克基地，对驻扎在那里的美国资产造成了严重破坏。

7月17日，伊朗声称使用弹道导弹和无人机袭击了驻扎在阿兹拉克空军基地的美军飞机，并声称摧毁了数架加油机和战斗机。美国中央司令部随后证实，两名美军士兵在伊朗的袭击中“阵亡”，一人失踪，另有四人受伤。

卫星图像显示，2026 年 1 月 16 日和 2026 年 2 月 2 日期间，约旦阿兹拉克穆瓦法克萨尔蒂空军基地的飞机数量有所增加。[Planet Labs 通过路透社提供]

阿兹拉克基地对约旦和美国有多重要？

穆瓦法克·萨尔蒂空军基地位于阿兹拉克附近，在安曼东北方向约100公里（62英里）处，地处约旦人口稀少的东部沙漠地区。该基地的正式名称是为了纪念约旦战斗机飞行员穆瓦法克·萨尔蒂中尉，他于1966年在萨穆战役中与以色列交战时阵亡。

2021年，安曼和华盛顿签署了一项防务合作协议，该协议允许美国军队和承包商进入沙特阿拉伯境内的12个军事设施。

伦敦国王学院战争研究系国际关系讲师塔哈尼·穆斯塔法表示：“阿兹拉克基地是少数几个驻扎着F-35、F-16和F-22战斗机的基地之一。那里有机库，美国人可以在那里藏匿他们的资产，而这正是伊朗人一直以来的目标。”

穆斯塔法告诉半岛电视台，这座拥有两条跑道的庞大基地是美国的重要资产，也是伊朗的目标。

美国智库华盛顿研究所的研究员大卫·申克尔告诉美联社，在美以对伊朗发动战争之前，该基地成为了美国 C-17 运输机和大约 60 架战斗机的“关键后勤枢纽”。

“约旦提供了巨大的战略纵深，”他说道，并称约旦的地理位置对美国在伊朗战争中“至关重要”，因为与距离更近的海湾合作委员会国家相比，约旦能够与伊朗的导弹和无人机保持距离。

华盛顿国会研究服务处 2023 年的一份报告强调，“约旦空军基地对于美国在叙利亚和伊拉克开展情报、监视、目标获取和侦察 (ISR) 任务尤为重要”。

该报告还指出，尽管“卫星图像显示，自至少 2016 年以来，美国空军的无人机和快速喷气式飞机就已驻扎在穆瓦法克·萨尔蒂空军基地”，但美国“在 2021 年协议签署之前从未正式承认其在该基地的存在”。

今年 7 月，《纽约时报》报道称，在持续战争的初期，约旦变得更加重要，因为驻扎在巴林、阿拉伯联合酋长国和卡塔尔的一些美军被转移到了那里。

2017 年，美国国会授权拨款 1.43 亿美元空军建设资金，用于扩建该基地的停机坪，据报道，这是当时最大的此类项目。