Donald Trump (AP file photo)
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States is aware of Iranian sleeper cells inside the country, as US and Israeli forces continued their military campaign against Iran. The operation, which has entered its second week, killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has since been followed by Iran retaliating against US assets and allies.Asked by a Fox News reporter if he had been briefed about how many Iranian sleeper cells there might be inside the U.S., Trump responded, “I’ve been told, and a lot of them came through Biden with Biden’s open border, but we know where most of them are. I think we have our eyes on all of them.”
Blaming former President Joe Biden’s alleged open-border policies for allowing potential threats to enter, Trump said, “A lot of people came through Biden with his stupid open border, but we know where most of them are. We have our eyes on all of them,” calling Biden “one of the worst presidents in the history of our country.”Trump said the military campaign against Iran was “being conducted at a scale that no one has ever seen before”, calling it “amazing to see”.Earlier, ABC News reports said that US officials had intercepted encrypted communications coming from Iran to undisclosed recipients. A federal alert said the content had not yet been determined, but asked law enforcement to increase monitoring of suspicious radio-frequency activity.“Although the exact content of these broadcasts cannot be determined at present, the sudden appearance of a new station with international rebroadcast characteristics heightens situational awareness,” the alert said.These warnings were given after the events in America following the death of Khamenei. A Senegalese man opened fire at a bar in Austin, Texas, killing three people, while two people were charged with attempting to support ISIS during a protest outside New York City’s Gracie Mansion, the official residence of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.Customs and Border Protection previously warned about the threat of sleeper cells after more than 700 Iranian citizens remained in the US despite crossing the border illegally over the past four years.FBI Director Kash Patel also said that counterterrorism teams are on high alert and working 24/7 to stop threats on US soil.“Last night, I directed our counterterrorism and intelligence teams to remain on high alert and mobilize all necessary security assets,” Patel wrote on Twitter shortly after the US operation began.