Jordanian authorities denied on Sunday that they had ordered the evacuation of the airport and seaport in the coastal city of Aqaba, after the US embassy in Amman said they had been evacuated over a threat.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said that “authorities have not issued any decisions to evacuate Aqaba Airport or the seaport, and both are operating normally”, adding that no “potential threats” had been detected.

The US embassy in Amman said Sunday that Jordanian authorities evacuated the airport and the seaport in the coastal city of Aqaba, citing a threat that was not immediately specified.

“Due to a specific and credible threat, Jordanian authorities evacuated the international airport and seaport in Aqaba. We strongly advise all Americans to refrain traveling to either the airport or seaport,” the embassy said in a statement.

Iran said on Sunday that it stopped two ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz without authorization, as tensions escalate between Tehran and Washington over control of the crucial waterway.

“Four violating ships, with the mischief and support of American terrorists… intended to disrupt and exit the Strait of Hormuz via an unsafe route, two of which had an accident and were stopped in place,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement, adding the two other ships abandoned their journey.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti authorities said an Iranian attack on a power and water plant in Kuwait caused a fire for the second day in a row on Sunday, as Tehran retaliates to US strikes with attacks across the Gulf region.

“As a result of the heinous Iranian aggression on Kuwait, a power and water distillation plant, for the second time in two days, has been subjected to an attack that caused a fire in some facilities of the station,” the Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said in a statement on X, adding that firefighters were working to extinguish the blaze.

Air raid sirens also sounded in the tiny Gulf kingdom of Bahrain as Iran and the United States traded fresh strikes over control of the vital Strait of Hormuz.

“The siren has been sounded. Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier, the US military said it carried out an eighth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, with targets including units behind the attack that killed the two American troops in Jordan.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it struck Iranian military facilities and “targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces that launched attacks against U.S. service members in Jordan on July 17.”

The attacks aimed to “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night”, it added. (AFP)