Iran may be activating sleeper cells outside of the country, according to an alert that was intercepted by the US.
The encrypted communications, believed to have come from inside Iran, was sent as an ‘operational trigger’ for ‘sleeper assets,’ according to ABC News.
Sleeper cells are agents or terrorists planted in countries who blend in with normal civilians until they are needed to carry out an attack.
The message was transmitted across multiple countries shortly after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was obliterated in a joint Israeli-US airstrike in Tehran on February 28. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has since been named the new Supreme Leader.
The Daily Mail exclusively revealed in August an extensive passport scheme with Iranian forces coming to the west through Venezuela and setting up sleeper cells in America’s backyard.
Fears of such activity has only heightened across the US in the last week that covert agents laying low in America may be triggered to retaliate after the war in Iran erupted.
The war has entered its second week with the US and Israel now feuding after Israeli forces blew up Iran’s oil depots in a blitz that shocked the White House over fears the move would anger Americans because of a surge in gas prices.
Preliminary signals analysis has led the US to believe the message was ‘likely of Iranian origin,’ and was sent to ‘clandestine recipients,’ who have a passcode.
Because the message had ‘international rebroadcast characteristics’ American intelligence believes its likely that it could be for sleeper cells. There was no operational threat tied to a specific location, the outlet said.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15628905/Iran-activating-sleeper-cells-outside-country.html