Terror fears skyrocket after Iran strikes as FBI issues chilling alert

Terror fears skyrocket after Iran strikes as FBI issues chilling alert

PHILLIP NIETO,

The FBI has issued a chilling warning to Americans as fears grow Iran will strike the US through its terrorist proxies. 

FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence teams are on elevated alert across the country, according to an agency official.

Terrorism fears are surging in the wake of Donald Trump's military strikes on Iran, as reports circulate that the Islamic regime's supreme leader was killed.

Iran uses a network of proxy militant groups around the globe to carry out violent attacks against Western countries.

The FBI did not say how long the terror alert will remain in effect. Meanwhile, Kristi Noem said Homeland Security is 'in direct coordination with our federal intelligence and law enforcement partners as we continue to closely monitor and thwart any potential threats to the homeland.'

Under orders from the president, the US military launched Tomahawk missiles on Iran in a joint operation with Israel, deploying Air Force and Navy jets. Iran responded to the aggression by launching 'revenge strikes' on US military bases across the Middle East.

Tehran has struck the Fifth Fleet service center in Manama, Bahrain, and claims to have hit bases across the region including in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

The Iranians are also using kamikaze drones to strike residential buildings and airports in the Middle East. Footage emerged on Saturday morning showing an Iranian drone crashing into a high-rise apartment building in Bahrain. 

The president warned that US troops could lose their lives, adding that 'we may have casualties.' Casualties from Iran's retaliatory strikes on US bases remain unclear.

Trump was reportedly warned by his top military advisers that Iran could respond to strikes with terror attacks with proxies on US soil.

The president grew frustrated during the planning process to strike Tehran when his generals could not assure him that the risk of U.S. casualties would remain low. 

Trump is already facing fierce political backlash for pulling the US into a new war in the Middle East.

Conservative podcasting titan Tucker Carlson branded Trump's attack 'absolutely disgusting and evil' as the president's MAGA base fractured.

Carlson's break with Trump signals the decision to go to war with Iran could carry legacy-defining consequences for the president.

Trump won the 2024 presidential election with a campaign advocating against regime change wars in the Middle East.

Trump, moreover, slammed 'so-called nation builders' during an investment conference in Saudi Arabia last May, adding they 'wrecked far more nations than they built.'

'And the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand,' Trump claimed at the time.

Now regime-change and nation building has become the central focus of the Trump administration's foreign policy.

The number of US and Iranian casualties following Saturday's military attacks in the Middle East remains unknown at the moment.  

After Khamenei’s death, Iran’s IRGC vows ‘most ferocious offensive operation in history’ against Israel, US

After Khamenei’s death, Iran’s IRGC vows ‘most ferocious offensive operation in history’ against Israel, US

TOI STAFF

The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday

Additional sirens blare in central Israel as south gets early warning

More sirens sound across central Israel amid Iran’s latest ballistic missile attack.

An early warning is also issued in southern Israel as more projectiles are launched.

Civilians in areas where sirens sound are instructed to enter bomb shelters.

The IDF says it is working to intercept the missiles.

Several loud bangs heard over Dubai for second day, witnesses say

Several loud bangs are heard in the Dubai area for a second straight day, witnesses say, as Iran launches retaliatory strikes on the neighboring Gulf states in response to US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic.

Iran has said it will target US bases in the region. It has hit a range of other targets.

Report: 30 bombs were dropped on Khamenei’s palace after rare opportunity emerged

Israel and the US waited for a rare opportunity to target Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and top advisers in his palace, The Wall Street Journal reports, without citing sources.

The report says three such meetings were identified by intelligence authorities, leading to the unusual broad daylight strike.

The report says 30 bombs were dropped on the compound.

Incoming missile alarms sound throughout central Israel

Incoming missile sirens sound in central Israel and parts of the northern West Bank due to a missile salvo from Iran, sending millions to bomb shelters.

Explosions, smoke near Iraq airport hosting US-led troops

By AFP

Loud explosions are heard near Erbil airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

An AFP journalist reports seeing thick black smoke rising from the airport area.

Yesterday, US-led coalition forces downed several missiles and explosive-laden drones over Erbil.

Drone infiltration alarms blare in Eilat

As the army declares “over” the event that triggered suspected drone infiltration sirens a short while ago in towns north of Eilat, more such alerts sound in the southern city itself.

That incident it, too, soon declared “over” by the IDF, which provides no additional details.

Iran forms council to temporarily govern Iran after Khamenei’s killing

A council has formed to govern Iran after the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

That council is enshrined in law in the Islamic Republic. It is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the head of the country’s judiciary and a member of the Guardian Council chosen by Iran’s Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader and settles disputes with parliament.

Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian and hardline judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei are on it.

Iranian law says the Assembly of Experts “must, as soon as possible,” pick a new supreme leader.

Iran’s IRGC threatens ‘most ferocious offensive operation in history’ against Israel, US after Khamenei killed

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vows to punish the “murderers” of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, after his death is confirmed by state television, promising what it says will be the “most ferocious offensive operation in history” against US bases and Israel.

“The hand of revenge of the Iranian nation for a severe, decisive and regrettable punishment for the murderers of the Imam of the Ummah will not let go of them,” the IRGC says in a statement.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and what it called the vast popular Basij forces will powerfully continue the path of their leader in defending his legacy, standing firm against internal and external plots and delivering what it described as a lesson-giving punishment to aggressors against the Islamic homeland,” it says.

Iran’s cabinet meanwhile warns that this “great crime will never go unanswered.”