Hotels hosting United States troops could become targets, Iran warns

Iran’s military has warned that hotels housing US soldiers across the region would be targets in its war with the United States and Israel.

“When all the Americans (forces) go into a hotel, then from our perspective that hotel becomes American,” armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi told state television on Thursday.

“Should we just stand by and let the Americans strike us? When we respond, naturally we have to strike wherever they are.”

On February 28, Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggering a war that spread across the Middle East.

The war has since spread across the Middle East, with Iran responding with drone and missile attacks on Israel and US interests in the region.

On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had accused US soldiers of using people in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as “human shields”.

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“From the outset of this war, US soldiers fled military bases in the GCC to hide in hotels and offices,” he said in a post on X, calling on hotels in the region to deny them bookings.

The Fars news agency, quoting unnamed sources, said Iran had sent “firm warnings” to hotels in the region, particularly in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

It added that Iran’s military had identified US forces using similar locations in Syria, Lebanon and Djibouti.

Iran accuses its neighbours of allowing US forces to carry out attacks from their territory, but Gulf states have repeatedly denied the accusations, saying even before the war that they would not allow their territory or airspace to be used to attack Iran.

AFP