IRAN is reportedly preparing to launch missiles in retaliation against the US, after American satellites and spy planes showed that Tehran had placed its rockets on “full alert”.
Reports in the New York Times revealed that American spy agencies detected that Iranian ballistic missile units across the country had gone to a heightened state of readiness.
This prompted concern in the Pentagon and White House that Iran was mobilizing the units for a major strike against American targets in the region in retaliation for General Soleimani’s death.
However, others claimed the missile units were dispersed in an effort to avoid further American attacks.
US satellites picked up what appeared to be fueling of rockets inside Iran and other missiles moving out of underground bunkers.
When spy planes were sent to take a closer look, the missiles on the coastal regions of Iran were confirmed to have been recently fuelled.
There is mounting fear that Iran could lash out against the US imminently.
A former Iranian diplomat has suggested that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already given his military commanders specific orders to strike back at the US.
The alarming details come as Soleimani’s body arrived back in Iran on Sunday where his coffin began three days of funeral ceremonies.
He also confirmed that the strike will be from Iran and not its Middle Eastern proxies.
Over the weekend, President Trump promised to strike 52 sites across Iran — representing the number of American hostages taken by Iran in 1979 — if Iran attacked Americans.
Qassem Soleimani’s daughter Zeinab warned the US it faces a "dark day" for the killing.
She said: "Crazy Trump, don't think that everything is over with my father's martyrdom."
Thousands of US troops have been deployed to Saudi Arabia while there are more than 5,000 troops at bases in Iraq.
There is also a major US air base in Qatar and a naval presence in Bahrain.
