Iran’s paramilitary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), issued a warning on Wednesday (local time) of attacks on “economic centers and banks” linked to US and Israeli entities in the region, Al Jazeera reported.
A spokesman for the headquarters of Khatam al-Anbiya, a group described as the UN-owned IRGC, said: “The enemy has left our hands open to target economic centers and banks belonging to the United States and the Zionist regime in the region.”
The paramilitary group also warned people not to be within one kilometer of banks in the region, adding that the Americans should wait for their “countermeasures and painful response”.
The development comes hours after Israel launched an overnight attack on a branch of the bank in Tehran, where several employees were reportedly killed. Iran’s state radio called it an illegitimate and unusual act in war. In addition, she accused the US and Israel of targeting economic centers and banks in Iran, saying that the “enemy” had declared these entities linked to the US and Israel to be targets themselves.
Iran has released a list of target locations
The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency shared a list of offices and infrastructure operated by leading US companies with Israeli ties whose technology was used for military applications, describing them as “new targets of Iran”. The named companies include Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia and Oracle, and the listed offices and cloud service infrastructure are located in several Israeli cities as well as in some Gulf countries.
According to a statement by the Tasnim news agency, as the conflict in the region evolves into a war focused on infrastructure, the range of potential targets for Iran has also expanded.
Israel targets Hezbollah-linked financial institutions in Beirut
The threats from the Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters came days after Israel attacked a Lebanese building in the southern suburbs of Beirut that was said to be a branch of the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial institution. It is a quasi-banking institution offering interest-free loans to individuals and was one of the many charities run by Hezbollah. Other institutions in this network include schools, hospitals and subsidized supermarkets.
The IRGC is targeting Amazon’s data centers in the Persian Gulf region
Reports indicate that the IRGC has previously targeted Amazon data centers in Dubai and other key hubs in the Persian Gulf region. It launched a drone attack on an Amazon data center in Bahrain last week, CNN reported, citing state media. In addition, Iranian drones targeted two Amazon facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The conflict between the US, Israel and Iran has caused a ripple effect throughout the Middle East region, with several countries bearing the brunt of the conflict. After Tehran retaliated on February 28, it launched strikes targeting Israel and US military installations in countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Since the start of the conflict, the region has been plunged into a wider military confrontation with loud explosions and intercepted missiles and drones.
