Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) announced early on Wednesday that its aerospace forces had targeted a U.S. air base in Jordan in retaliation for the "aggressive" attacks by the United States against Iranian oil tankers. The IRGC said in a statement that it struck a hangar for the maintenance, repair, preparation and deployment of the U.S. Army's F-35, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets and a shelter for the U.S. fighter aircraft at the Al-Azraq Air Base, "inflicting heavy damage on the enemy." Meanwhile, Jordan's military said on Wednesday that its air defense systems had destroyed 18 of 20 Iranian ballistic missiles.
Two missiles fell in unpopulated areas, causing no casualties, it said.
The U.S. forces on Tuesday destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers, the U.S. Central Command said.
Iran claims strike on US base in Jordan in retaliation for attacks on its oil tankers
A surge in summer holiday travel and the growing demand for high-quality services helped push China's consumer prices higher in August, with the consumer price index (CPI) rising 0.8 percent year on year, experts said Wednesday following the release of key economic data.
The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the CPI in August increase accelerated by 0.3 percentage points from July, with both consumer goods and service prices rising 0.8 percent.
"Since the beginning of this year, new domestic consumption scenarios in areas such as cultural tourism have become increasingly diverse. In particular, during the summer peak season in August, residents' travel demand was released intensively, driving up prices for tourism services, hotel accommodations, and related sectors. In addition, as residents' demand for high-quality service consumption continues to grow, prices for household services such as housekeeping have also risen," said Liu Nancun, an economist at the Analysis and Forecasting Division of the Price Monitoring Center of the National Development and Reform Commission.
On a month-on-month basis, the national CPI turned from a 0.1 percent decline in the previous month to a 0.4 percent increase. This was mainly driven by rising international crude oil prices, which led to higher domestic refined oil product prices and pushed up transportation fuel costs. In addition, driven by factors such as the rapidly growing demand for computing power, prices of products including tablet computers, computers, and mobile phones also rose.
Summer travel, service demand push August CPI higher in China
