An FBI alert to law enforcement agencies last month, warning of the possibility that Tehran might try to retaliate for any US strikes on Iran by launching drone attacks in California, was based on a single unverified tip, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says, adding that there has never been such a threat to the U.S. from Iran, Reuters reports.
The confidential alert, issued by the FBI through the multi-agency Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Centre, surfaced publicly a day prior.
It cited FBI information that, as of early February, Iran “allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles” launched from a sea vessel against targets in California “in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran”.
Leavitt, in a post on X, says that the alert was based on one email sent to local law enforcement in California containing a single, unverified tip.
“To be clear: no such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” Leavitt has written.
