Iran is believed to have sent a message to possible sleeper cells in other countries as the regime faces continued bombardment from the United States and Israel.
This development comes amid increasing concerns that the regime might use proxies to carry out retaliatory attacks in the U.S. and other Western nations as the war continues.
From ABC News:
The U.S. has intercepted encrypted communications believed to have originated in Iran that may serve as "an operational trigger" for "sleeper assets" outside the country, according to a federal government alert sent to law enforcement agencies.
The alert, reviewed by ABC News, cites "preliminary signals analysis" of a transmission "likely of Iranian origin" that was relayed across multiple countries shortly after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, was killed in a U.S.-Israeli attack on Feb. 28.
The intercepted transmission was encoded and appeared to be destined for "clandestine recipients" who possess the encryption key, the kind of message intended to impart instructions to "covert operatives or sleeper assets" without the use of the internet or cellular networks.
It's possible the transmissions could "be intended to activate or provide instructions to prepositioned sleeper assets operating outside the originating country," the alert said.
Iranian sleeper cells 'activated' inside America: Homeland Security bosses reveal 'go' signal sent from Tehran... and top US targets now most at risk | Daily Mail Online https://t.co/He4kqWPlZP
— QPhenomAnon (@qphenomanon) March 4, 2026
Here we go. Keep your head on a swivel. See something say something. Be safe. ❤️🇺🇸🙏
When the airstrikes began, reports suggested that Iranian sleeper cells could be activated across the globe if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. Federal authorities are already on heightened alert for possible Iranian-linked attacks on American soil, USA Today reported.
Federal counterterrorism agencies are on high alert for a potential retaliatory attack on U.S. soil after U.S. and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran that killed the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other top officials.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have both announced they are on war footing, as they have been in the past over whether U.S. strikes, ordered by President Donald Trump, on Iranian targets would prompt the Tehran regime and its proxy forces to seek revenge.
Former FBI and Treasury Department counterterrorism official Matthew Levitt told USA Today, “If there was ever a time the regime would want to act on it, it would be now.”
Chris Swecker, a former assistant FBI Director, told Fox News that “If ever there’s going to be a Hezbollah cell or a Hamas cell act in the United States in a violent way, it’s now.”
He further explained that both terrorist groups “have had a presence in the United States since the 1980s.”
There are concerns that Iranian sleeper cells could target soft civilian areas and infrastructure sites across the country given its history of using proxies and covert operatives to strike in the West.
Even before the current conflict, officials sounded the alarm on Iranian plots involving sleeper cells. Federal authorities say they disrupted at least 17 Iranian plots on U.S. soil since the 2020 killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani. They pointed to several murder-for-hire and kidnapping plots documented in federal indictments.