NBC: Iran threatened sleeper-cell strikes inside US before June 21 airstrikes

Iran sent a communiqué to Trump in the days before the June 21 US strikes on its nuclear facilities, threatening to activate sleeper-cell terror inside the United States if it were attacked, unnamed sources said.

The message got to Trump through an intermediary at the Group of Seven summit in Canada last week, which Trump left early on June 16 to consider his options amid the conflict between Israel and Iran, according to sources who include two U.S. officials and a person with knowledge of the threat, Caliber.Az reports, citing NBC News.

Trump’s administration, as well as law enforcement agencies in key cities, are on high alert for any potential retaliation inside the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security warned in a statement on June 22 that the “Iran conflict is causing a heightened threat environment in the United States.”

The statement said there could be an increased possibility of terrorist attacks in the U.S. homeland, particularly “if Iranian leadership issued a religious ruling calling for retaliatory violence against targets in the Homeland.” It also said Iran could launch cyberattacks on U.S. networks and target current and former U.S. government officials whom Tehran blames for the 2020 assassination of the top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani.

Iran has struggled to stage operations in the United States in the past.

On June 22, US Vice President JD Vance said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the administration is looking at the possibility of a homeland attack "very closely,” and he expressed confidence that law enforcement can handle the threat.

One point of concern, he said, is a lack of “full accounting” of those who may have entered the country during President Joe Biden's term without proper vetting. “We know that some of those people were on terrorism watch lists,” Vance said.

A European diplomat working on the Iran issue said the United States and its allies also believe Iran has the capability to attack European and American nationals beyond U.S. soil and beyond the Middle East.

To recall, on June 21, American forces conducted airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. The attacks, described by US President Trump as a “spectacular military success,” aimed to dismantle Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities, which the US and Israel claim pose a severe threat to global security.

The US operation involved B-2 Spirit stealth bombers deploying GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs), 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” bombs designed to penetrate deeply buried targets. The primary target, Fordow, is a heavily fortified uranium enrichment facility located 300 feet beneath a mountain south of Tehran, making it one of Iran’s most secure nuclear sites. Six B-2 bombers dropped a dozen MOPs on Fordow, while US Navy submarines launched 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Natanz and Isfahan, according to US officials. Trump claimed the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities.

By Khagan Isayev