An encrypted broadcast tied to Iran’s regime could be an activation call for “sleeper assets” to launch attacks, federal officials told law enforcement agencies this week.
U.S. authorities issued the alert after intercepting the encrypted message, which was delivered to “clandestine recipients,” according to the internal bulletin first reviewed by ABC News.
The coded message could be marching orders for the regime’s “covert operatives or sleeper assets,” the alert said. It added that there is “no operational threat tied to a specific location.”
The stealthy broadcast, which was transmitted outside internet and cellular networks and needed an encryption key to be accessed, was sent to several countries after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a U.S.-Israeli airstrike on Feb. 28.
“While the exact contents of these transmissions cannot currently be determined, the sudden appearance of a new station with international rebroadcast characteristics warrants heightened situational awareness,” the alert said.
The federal communication urged police agencies to continue monitoring suspicious radio activity.
The FBI sent a notice last month that Iran intended to launch a drone swarm on the West Coast in response to U.S. military action.
The notice said, “Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran.”
“We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack,” said the alert, which was also first reviewed by ABC News.
The Iranian regime is known to have sleeper cells scattered around the globe that can be called to carry out “lone wolf” terrorist attacks when the Islamic republic is threatened.
The threat of such attacks has put political leaders on guard.
“The risk of terrorism right now is quite high,” Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, said Tuesday on Capitol Hill. “We tragically saw in Austin, Texas, just last weekend, we saw a terrorist attack. We also saw another terrorist attack in New York City.”
Mr. Cruz referred to a mass shooting in Austin and an attempted bombing in Manhattan. Both are being investigated with links to the Islamic State group.
Two Pennsylvania men claimed their allegiance to ISIS after they were charged with tossing homemade bombs at a rally opposing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim.
Court documents said one of the men, 18-year-old Emir Balat, used Islamic State slogans during his police interrogation. He allegedly said he wanted his improvised explosive devices, which were made with a chemical compound used in terrorist bombings around the world, to kill more people than the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
Three people were killed and 19 were wounded in Austin when a gunman wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with “Property of Allah” opened fire on a nightlife crowd.
The assailant, Ndiaga Diagne, was fatally shot by police. The FBI said it is investigating his ties to terrorist groups.
Diagne was a naturalized U.S. citizen, and the two men suspected in the New York attack were native-born Americans. Still, Mr. Cruz stressed that President Biden’s lax border policies mean sleeper cells likely infiltrated the country.
“The danger has never been higher than right now, particularly after four years of open borders under Joe Biden,” the senator said. “We know that radical Islamic terrorists entered this country, and there’s a vulnerability all across this country.”
Outside the U.S., American diplomatic properties have been targeted in shootings and bombings that foreign authorities are reviewing for ties to Iran.
Canadian police said Tuesday that two gunmen fired several bullets at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto before driving away. No one was injured, and officials have not offered a motive for the attack.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggested that the nascent war with Iran and the theocratic regime’s legion of “sleeper cells all over the world” played a role.
“They are in the U.S., they are in Canada here,” Mr. Ford said. “We have to weed these people out and hold them accountable.”
This weekend, an attacker detonated an IED near the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway.
Oslo police investigator Frode Larsen said police are considering terrorism as a motive. No one has been arrested in the bombing.
Synagogues have been targeted in North America and Europe.
Toronto police said two synagogues were hit with gunfire after the U.S. began its air war with Iran. No one was injured.
In Belgium, a bomb exploded near a synagogue in the city of Liege. The house of worship was damaged, but no one was injured.
Liege Mayor Willy Demeyer spoke out against antisemitism after the bombing and the need to protect the city from hateful acts associated with the war.
“We cannot allow foreign conflicts to be imported into our city,” Mr. Demeyer told Belgian news outlet RTBF.
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