US on high alert for homeland attacks by Iran. What to know.
USA TODAY
FBI, DHS on war footing due to Iran's long history of plotting retaliatory attacks, including recent assassination attempts on President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON – Federal counterterrorism agencies are on high alert for a potential retaliatory attack on U.S. soil after U.S. and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran that killed the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other top officials.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have both announced they are on war footing, as they have been in the past over whether U.S. strikes, ordered by President Donald Trump, on Iranian targets would prompt the Tehran regime and its proxy forces to seek revenge.
And while officials from both agencies declined comment to USA TODAY on March 1 about their heightened operations, veteran Iran watchers said there is good reason for them to be worried.
“Iran has developed this capability to carry out attacks abroad over many years,” including in the United States, former FBI and Treasury Department counterterrorism official Matthew Levitt said. “If there was ever a time the regime would want to act on it, it would be now.”
Already, Iran has responded with a wave of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East, including targeting countries hosting U.S. military bases like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed March 1 that “bloodshed and revenge” is Iran’s “legitimate right and duty.”
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