Iran to respond US strikes by worldwide attack: Experts

WASHINGTON: Iran would respond to US military strikes on its nuclear sites by deploying its intelligence operatives and Hezbollah teams to carry out terrorist attacks
worldwide, according to American intelligence experts.

Iran would mount attacks against US targets inside Iraq, where Iranian intelligence agents are already plentiful, the unnamed intelligence and terrorism experts were quoted as saying by ‘The Washington Post’ on Sunday.

They said there is also a growing consensus that Iran's agents would target civilians in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, according to the report.

 US officials would not discuss what evidence they have indicating Iran would undertake terrorist action, but the matter ‘is consuming a lot of time’ throughout the US intelligence apparatus, one senior official said while another was quoted as saying that "it's a huge issue."

Citing prohibitions against discussing classified information, US intelligence officials declined to say whether they have detected preparatory measures, such as increased
surveillance, counter-surveillance or message traffic, on the part of Iran's foreign-based intelligence operatives, the paper reported.

But terrorism experts considered Iranian-backed or controlled groups -- the country's intelligence operatives, Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah -- to be better organised, trained and equipped than the Al-Qaeda network, it said.