The US is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, according to officials.
Plans drawn up by the Pentagon include potential raids on Kharg Island, Tehran’s main oil export hub, and attacks on coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz.
Any ground operation would stop short of a full-scale invasion but could involve raids by special forces and infantry troops, officials told The Washington Post.
One source briefed on the plans – which are in their advanced stages – said it could take “weeks, not months” to complete, while another estimated a timeline of “a couple of months”.
On Sunday, high-ranking figures in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responded to news of the planned ground operations with threats to “rain fire” on US troops.
In a statement marking 30 days since the start of the war, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, said that “the enemy signals negotiation in public, while in secret it plots a ground attack”, adding that regime forces were “waiting for American soldiers to enter on the ground so they can rain fire upon them”.
Meanwhile, a statement released by the commander of the IRGC’s army headquarters boasted of the regime’s control of the Strait of Hormuz and how vessels could only pass through with its permission.
It read: “Let the enemy be certain that we sharpen our daggers every day, and we will slit the throat of every one of your soldiers.”
Addressing the US president as “Gambler Trump”, the statement continued: “[We] have also prepared the graves of your forces, for two purposes: first, to demonstrate Iran’s power to the world, and second, as a lesson for all the tyrants of the world.
