Iran’s military vows to attack US, Israel economic interests in Middle East

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Iran’s military vowed on Wednesday to launch strikes against US and Israeli economic interests in the region, including banks, while an Iranian news agency listed tech giants as possible “future targets”.

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“The enemy has given us free rein to target economic centres and banks belonging to the United States and the Zionist regime,” the military’s central operational command, Khatam Al-Anbiya, said in a statement carried by state TV in response to reports of a strike hitting an Iranian bank.

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It urged people across the region to avoid going within one kilometre (around half a mile) of banks.

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Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that “a branch of my country’s oldest bank was bombed while full of employees”.

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“Our Powerful Armed Forces will exact retribution for this crime,” he added on X.

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Iranian media had reported US and Israeli strikes hit a bank in Tehran overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, killing an unspecified number of staff.

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Iran’s Tasnim news agency also published a list of potential targets for Iran on Telegram, including the offices of tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia in Gulf countries and Israel.

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“With the expansion of regional war into infrastructure warfare, the scope of Iran’s potential targets are gradually expanding,” Tasnim wrote, without citing a source for the possible development.

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Tech giant Amazon said last week that two of its data centers in the United Arab Emirates were “directly struck” by drones, disrupting cloud services in parts of the Middle East.

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