US ‘targeting’ 52 Iranian sites if Tehran attacks

US President Donald Trump has warned the US is “targeting” 52 Iranian sites and will strike “very fast and hard” if Tehran attacks Americans or US assets.

His comments followed the US assassination of a top Iranian general, of Qasem Soleimani, in a drone strike. Iran has vowed to avenge his killing.

Mr Trump wrote on Twitter that Iran “is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets” in response to the general’s death. He said the US had identified 52 Iranian sites, some “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture.

The president said the 52 targets represented the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for more than a year from late 1979, after they were seized at the US embassy in Tehran.

Shortly after Mr Trump’s tweets, the website of a US government agency appeared to have been hacked by a group calling itself “Iran Cyber Security Group Hackers”.