Daily Times

US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned to hit 52 Iranian sites “very hard” if Iran tries to attack “any Americans, or American assets,” in the response of its military commander Qassem Soleimani’s killing in Iraq.

In a marathon of tweets, the US president threatened Iran, which reads “Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge… targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!

The development occurred after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and Mohammad Jawad Zarif, its foreign minister, have repeatedly reinforced that “the US will pay for Soleimani’s murder”.

Yet, President Trump drew a red line towards Iran and especially objected cultural sites of Iran, but on the other hand, Colin Kahl former deputy assistant to President Barack Obama and national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden — rebuffed any such harsh moment.

He tweets, “For what it’s worth, I find it hard to believe the Pentagon would provide Trump targeting options that include Iranian cultural sites. Trump may not care about the laws of war, but DoD planners and lawyers do… and targeting cultural sites is a war crime.”

Meanwhile, chants of “Death to America” continues countrywide in Iran and both “Death to America” and “No No Israel” remains echoing in major parts of Iraq.

So far, Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah militia warned Iraqi security forces to stay away from US bases in Iraq, “by a distance not less than a thousand meters (six-tenths of a mile) starting Sunday evening,” reported Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV.

Nevertheless, these latest tweets of US president read “warning” while the ones which he made prior to the drone attack on Friday had read “threat”.

Cyber Attack by Iran

In the wake of the drone attack, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad had indicated of the possibility of cyber-attack of Iran against the US — which has been seen after President Trump tweets, a website of a US government agency appeared to have been hacked by a group calling itself “Iran Cyber Security Group Hackers”.

A message on the American Federal Depository Library Programme site read: “This is a message from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“We will not stop supporting our friends in the region: the oppressed people of Palestine, the oppressed people of Yemen, the people and the Syrian government, the people and government of Iraq, the oppressed people of Bahrain, the true Mujahideen resistance in Lebanon and Palestine, [they] will always be supported by us.”

The web page contained a doctored image of President Trump, depicting him being hit in the face and bleeding at the mouth.

“This is only small part of Iran’s cyber ability!” [sic], the hackers. — Quoted from the BBC.

Situation in Pakistan

To deter or prevent an attack against US properties or officials — the security has been tightened-up around the US consulates General offices of Karachi and Lahore.