Iran puts US students in crosshairs with campus threat as new US missile strike on school sparks fury
Iran has threatened to target American campuses in the Middle East in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks on its schools.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has set a deadline of noon Monday for the Trump administration to ‘condemn the bombings of universities’ or it will retaliate against US students studying abroad in the Middle East.
Regime officials have warned that staff, professors and students at US schools in the region must stay at least one kilometer away from their campuses.
Iran claims that attacks on the Tehran University of Science and Technology over the weekend damaged nearby buildings but caused no casualties.
The regime told the Iranian media: “If the US government wants its universities in the region to be immune from reprisals… it must condemn the bombing of universities by making an official statement by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time.”
Many American universities have campuses abroad, where thousands of students study, often with financial support from their host governments.
New York University has a campus in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, and Texas A&M each have satellite campuses in Qatar’s Education City, a research center based in Doha.
Texas A&M said it closed its Qatar campus, switched to remote learning and most international staff returned home amid the war.
Regime officials have warned that employees, professors and students affiliated with American universities in the region must stay at least one kilometer away from their campuses
Many American universities have campuses abroad, where thousands of students study, often with financial support from their host governments.
Since the start of the war, deadly missile attacks have hit Iran’s educational facilities, including an attack on a primary school in the city of Minab on February 28 that killed 175 people, most of them children.
The elementary school attack sparked a U.S. military investigation, with preliminary findings concluding that American forces were likely responsible due to outdated intelligence.
According to the State Department, nearly 5,000 Americans studied in the Middle East and North Africa last academic year; about half of them were in Israel and about 1,000 in the UAE.
Since the start of the war, deadly missile attacks have hit Iran’s educational facilities, including an attack on a primary school in the city of Minab on February 28 that killed 175 people, most of them children.
The attack sparked a U.S. military investigation, whose preliminary findings concluded that American forces were likely responsible due to outdated intelligence. The building was once part of the regime’s naval base.
Reports have also emerged that a newly built US missile was used in an attack on a gym and a nearby primary school in southern Iran, according to The New York Times.
Local officials told Iranian media that approximately 21 people died in the attack in the city of Lamerd.
The threat of attacks on US schools in the region comes as Trump decides to green light a highly complex and potentially explosive military operation to send US special operations forces deep into Iran to seize enriched uranium stockpiles.
This move could plunge American troops into enemy territory for days or even a week and risk a dramatic escalation of the war. This was reportedly one of many proposals proposed by the Pentagon.
U.S. officials say the secret plan would target about 1,000 pounds of uranium at one or two nuclear facilities in Natanz and Isfahan.
Smoke and flames rise from an air strike on an oil depot in Tehran on March 7
Iran has responded to the US-Israeli attacks by launching suicide drone and ballistic missile attacks on oil infrastructure and civilian areas in the Middle East.
Israel attacked Gaza early last week
The goal would be to remove radioactive material completely from Iran’s control and eliminate any path to a nuclear weapon.
The proposal is still under review and Trump has not yet signed it. But officials told The Wall Street Journal that he was seriously considering that option even as advisers warned of dangers to American forces and the possibility of a broader conflict.
Military experts say the operation will be one of the most difficult missions the United States can undertake.
American forces will likely need to fly into heavily defended areas exposed to fire from Iranian air defenses and drones before securing nuclear facilities believed to house the material.
Once on the ground, combat troops will be tasked with locking down the perimeter, while expert teams will locate the uranium, ensure its security and prepare it for transportation.
Retired Gen. Joseph Votel, a former commander of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, told the Journal of the potential mission: ‘This is not a quick-in-and-out kind of deal.
But Trump’s recent rhetoric appears to have improved his standing, according to the latest Daily Mail/JL Partners poll.
The president’s approval stands at 46 percent, up three points from ten days ago.
The most recent poll was conducted on March 23 and 24, when Trump began touting the idea that the United States was in talks to reach a peace deal with Iran.
