Several US fighter jets damaged in Iranian strikes on Jordan: CBS report

8 F-15 fighter jets suffered minor damage but were subsequently returned to service PHOTO: ANADOLU AGENCY Multiple US military aircraft were damaged in Iranian strikes carried out overnight on Tuesday into Wednesday local time at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, CBS News reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. The sources reportedly said that approximately eight F-15 fighter jets suffered minor damage but were subsequently returned to service. An A-10 Thunderbolt, known as the Warthog, was also hit and reportedly lost a wing, according to the sources. No US fatalities have been reported in connection with the attacks in Jordan. Read: Trump says Iran war will end right after US midterm elections The damage occurred after the US said Tuesday that it struck five Iranian tankers in retaliation for Iran's targeting of a US Navy vessel. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later said it had launched attacks against eight tankers and two warships as well as the US base in Jordan. The report also said that US forces in Jordan fired more than 30 Patriot missiles to defend against the Iranian attacks. The strikes came as US officials have raised concerns about a rapidly shrinking supply of Patriot missiles, along with declining stocks of other precision-guided munitions. Trump says US will call Strait of Hormuz ‘Trump Strait’ US President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that the United States will now call the Strait of Hormuz the “Trump Strait,” adding that the US is “winning” its war with Iran. “Oil (prices) will be going down as soon as we win the war with Iran, which is taking place right now. We'll win it,” Trump said during a Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas. “We're winning it. We control the Hormuz Strait. I think we should call the Hormuz Strait, we should call it the Trump Strait. I should get something out of it. The Trump Strait. Read more: IRGC announces capture of US unmanned submersible: state media “It's going to be called -- ladies and gentlemen, I'll have an announcement -- we'll call it the Trump Strait, and I'm sure the Iranian leadership will be thrilled with that,” he said. Trump said Iran is “falling apart,” adding that it has been “the bully of the Middle East for 51 years, and they're not the bully anymore.” He warned that the US might target Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain “because somebody said there was a little movement at the site,” claiming that the US is aware of all movement in the area. “We know exactly what's going on … I would advise Iran not to get cute because we will have to hit them very hard. We have no choice, right?” Trump said. “We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple.” His remarks came amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US over the Strait of Hormuz, despite a memorandum signed in June that envisioned a deal to reopen the strategic waterway as a prelude to a wider peace deal. Hormuz shipping traffic in single digits, data shows Vessel transits at the Strait of Hormuz fell slightly on Wednesday to seven, compared with the previous day's 12, preliminary ship-tracking data showed on Thursday, with levels also lower than the 10-day average of 14. Out of these seven, four vessels exited and three entered, according to the data. Some vessels could be sailing through the waterway with their transponders turned off and these are not considered in the counts. Trump says Iran war to end after US midterm elections, threatens to attack Pickaxe Mountain Trump said he expected the war with Iran to end after the November US midterm elections and threatened again to attack a site associated with the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme after the two sides launched their biggest wave of attacks on shipping since the start of the six-month-old war. Tensions in the region were high, with Saudi civil defence authorities on Thursday issuing emergency alerts in the southwest city of Khamis Mushait for the fourth time in 24 hours, as clashes flared with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis. Brent crude prices hovered above $100 a barrel as supply routes through both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea remained heavily disrupted. Iran said it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after the US sank five Iranian oil tankers, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat strikes that have signalled scant chance of an imminent end to hostilities. The war and subsequent increase in fuel prices have helped drive Trump's popularity to record lows. The president said Tehran was trying to influence the November US midterm elections, which will determine whether his Republican Party retains control of Congress. "I think war is going to end immediately after the election because they can't hold out any longer. They're desperate to try and affect the election," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. Trump has previously set deadlines for the war to end. The Wall Street Journal reported later that top White House advisers, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have privately warned Trump that the conflict could extend through the remainder of his presidency, which ends in January 2029. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Trump also said the US may hit Iran's Pickaxe ​Mountain, a heavily fortified site that hosts two deeply buried tunnel complexes near Iran's damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility. "We notice there's a little activity at Pickaxe. I would advise Iran not to get cute because we will have to hit them very hard," Trump said in a speech at the midterm Republican convention. Trump has been threatening strikes on Pickaxe Mountain since at least mid-July. The US and Israel launched military strikes on Iran in February partly due to concerns over Tehran's nuclear programme. Iran says its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes. In recent weeks, Washington had cited increasing success guiding tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of oil supplies before the war. But a resumption of fighting this month appears to have set back any such gradual reopening. Just seven vessels transited the strait on Wednesday, half the 10-day average, preliminary ship-tracking data showed on Thursday. Fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen has also escalated in the past few days, a second theatre of war that threatens global energy supplies from the Middle East. At least 73 people were wounded in four southern Saudi cities, including Khamis Mushait, in recent Houthi attacks on the world's largest oil exporter, the Saudi-led coalition said on Tuesday. The militant group said it attacked an air base in the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait and oil infrastructure in nearby cities in one of the biggest attacks on Saudi Arabia since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran in February. Saudi civil defence authorities issued an all-clear on Thursday following another emergency alert declared in Khamis Mushait.