Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it launched 12 ballistic missiles at the US-operated al-Azraq air base in Jordan, claiming to have destroyed three American F-35 stealth fighters and damaged three others. US and Jordanian officials have said their air defenses intercepted most of the incoming missiles, with only limited damage reported on the ground.

What actually happened at al-Azraq

The IRGC launched its salvo on June 10-11, 2026, targeting facilities it believed housed advanced aircraft including the F-35, F-15, and F-16.

Between July 9-14, a second wave of Iranian missile and drone strikes hit the same base. Two American service members were killed, and one additional soldier was reported missing. Jordanian air defenses intercepted most of an approximately 10-missile assault during the July attacks.

This is the same base where three US soldiers died in a January 2024 drone attack.

The crypto market’s war reflex

The July strikes on al-Azraq triggered over $1 billion in liquidations across the broader crypto market. Bitcoin itself held remarkably steady, trading near $63,000 throughout the chaos.

Why the F-35 claim matters beyond the battlefield

The F-35 program is the most expensive weapons system in human history. Lockheed Martin, its manufacturer, is a publicly traded company whose stock price is sensitive to perceptions of the jet’s invulnerability. No damage to F-35 jets has been independently verified by US or Jordanian authorities.

What crypto investors should be watching

The $1 billion liquidation figure tells a story about market structure. The vast majority of those liquidations came from leveraged long positions that couldn’t survive a sudden downtick. Bitcoin’s resilience near $63,000 during the July strikes suggests that spot holders are not panicking over Middle Eastern military escalations.