Washington: US intelligence sources have warned that Iran will launch its revenge against American “sleeper cells” following President Donald Trump’s ceasefire announcement between Iran and Israel.
In the intelligence report first obtained by The Telegraph, the US was warned that Tehran could deploy “secret operatives living in US cities” in the form of “sleeper cells” to “launch terrorist attacks, cyberattacks and assassinations” of US officials.
Potential spies or foreign operatives, known as sleeper cells, reside in a specific location and pose as civilians in the community.
The report, which has now been obtained, also suggested that Iran might activate sleeper cells using “desperate Iranian-Americans and Iranian immigrants, some of whom could be blackmailed” with the goal of attacking American locations with drones or even targeting cyberattacks.
The experts have also added that sleeper cells could strike back after Trump and the Israeli government carried out strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last week.
Responding to the report, Trump had said, “We have sleeper cells in our country right now because our borders were totally open during the Biden administration. Over 1,500 Iranian nationals have been apprehended at the border trying to get in. And they let half of them go, and they’re still in the country. These are agents from Iran. These are big supercells.”
“The big problem is some didn’t get caught. They got through the border, and they could go off at any time,” Trump also claimed.
Experts say the number of sleeper cells may be higher than reported, as it’s unknown how many Iranian spies crossed the border.
The recent intelligence report that detailed Iran’s possible sleeper cell activation comes after the country warned Trump at the G7 summit in Canada on June 16 that it would activate sleeper cells against the US if its nuclear sites were targeted by Washington, NBC News also reported.
“The Iranians, when they were talking to Trump up at the G-7 Summit a few weeks back, had a warning that if their nuclear facilities were targeted by the US, we would see sleeper cells activated,” a source with direct knowledge of the intelligence report has said.
The threats of retaliation also came despite Trump’s claims that the American strike had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, although a classified Defence Intelligence Agency report had been leaked earlier this week revealing the US strike on Iran had not destroyed its nuclear program but only set back its efforts by months, heightening tensions in the region.
In the meantime, FBI chief Kash Patel increased monitoring of possible Hezbollah-linked sleeper cells in the US since Israel’s recent Operation Rising Lion offensive in southern Lebanon earlier this month, US officials told CBS News. A bulletin by the Department of Homeland Security warned that cyberattacks and violent extremism in the US were elevated due to the conflict between Iran and Israel.