Iran Uses Advanced Khaibar Shekan Missile in Deadly Strike on Jordanian Base

Iran employed its advanced Khaibar Shekan ballistic missile in a deadly attack on the Al-Wafaq Salti base in Jordan, killing three American soldiers, according to a Wall Street Journal report published overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday. The missile, operational since 2022, has a range of at least 1,500 kilometers, uses solid fuel, and is equipped with satellite guidance and a maneuvering warhead designed to evade air defenses. This strike is part of a series of Iranian missile attacks in recent days, demonstrating Tehran’s maintained and possibly enhanced missile launch capabilities despite previous U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s underground missile facilities, known as "missile cities."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin acknowledged during a Senate hearing that Russia and China likely assist Iran in its attacks against Gulf states and U.S. military targets in the Middle East. Military experts estimate that the recent Jordan strike involved one of Iran’s most effective medium-range ballistic missiles, the Khaibar Shekan. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards also claimed recent use of other ballistic missiles such as Fateh, Zolfaghar, Fateh-110, Qiam, as well as drones and cruise missiles.

Retired Brigadier General Ran Kochav, former head of Israel’s Air Defense Array, suggested to the Wall Street Journal that the increased success of Iranian missile strikes is partly due to damage sustained by radar and air defense systems in early phases of the conflict, affecting countries including Jordan and others in the Gulf.

The Pentagon announced the names of two additional U.S. soldiers killed recently: Sergeant Angel Rampersad, 28, from New York, the third soldier killed in the Jordan attack, and Sergeant Michael Swinton, 30, from North Carolina, who died from shrapnel injuries caused by a controlled explosion of an Iranian explosive drone at a base in Iraq. The deadly Jordan attack was reportedly the third missile strike on the Al-Wafaq Salti base within 24 hours, with earlier strikes damaging a gym and an empty aircraft hangar before the fatal hit on the soldiers’ living quarters.