U.S. rushing more warplanes to Mideast after Iran's deadly barrage in Jordan: NYT

NEW YORK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jul, 2026) The United States is sending more warplanes to the middle East as U.S. and Iranian forces edged closer to a wider war over the weekend, according to The New York Times.

The latest escalation followed the killing of two American soldiers during an Iranian missile barrage in Jordan.

The newspaper said both sides targeted sensitive infrastructure sites including bridges and followed water facilities.

Iran blames the US for the latest intensification in the fighting. The Iranian Supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said the United States had violated the Pakistani-mediated cease-fire deal made in June and called President Donald Trump’s signature on it “worthless and invalid,” in a message carried by news media on Saturday.

The Times said the Iranian strike on Jordan, which also left one service member missing, capped a week of spiraling attacks that largely demolished what remained of the deal to end the war that President Trump agreed to with Iran last month. The State Department cautioned Americans traveling abroad that tensions in the Middle East had created the “potential for unforeseen escalation.”

According to the Times, U.S. officials who were not authorized to publicly discuss operational matters, said on Sunday that Air Force F-16 fighter jets from Germany and stealthy F-35 jets from Britain were being sent to the Middle East.

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Additional aerial refueling aircraft were also on the way, officials said.

The U.S. military said early on Sunday that it had attacked Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defence facilities, as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps forces responsible for striking U.S. forces in Jordan.

Iran retaliated with strikes on Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, the Middle East countries where the United States maintains a significant military presence. In recent days, the newspaper said. The Iranian attacks have increasingly damaged critical infrastructure, including an oil facility and power and water treatment plants in Kuwait, according to the US authorities.

Jordan evacuated the international airport and seaport in the coastal city of Aqaba after a “specific and credible threat,” according to the U.S. Embassy there. The country’s air defences later shot down three Iranian missiles that targeted the country, the Jordanian military said, while a fourth landed in an unpopulated area, it claimed.

Friday marked the first time U.S. troops were killed by Iranian fire since the truce unraveled in recent weeks, bringing the war’s death toll among U.S. personnel to 16, it was pointed out.

At least 50 people in Iran have been killed since the escalation began earlier this month, according to the Iranian health ministry.