US troops across the Middle East have been warned that videos filmed on their phones could help Iran carry out and assess attacks on them and their military colleagues.
Personnel at some bases may even be ordered by superiors to hand over their devices while they’re deployed.
Admiral Bradford ‘Brad’ Cooper, the US’ senior commander overseeing the Iran war, said that video footage posted online was allowing Tehran
The information could show whether its missiles and drones had hit their intended targets or not.
Cooper warned that the consequences of innocent phone-based activity could be deadly. ‘The direct, unavoidable cost of this open-source intelligence could be measured in the lives of American service members and civilian residents in targeted Gulf countries,’ he wrote.
Thousands of deployed troops rely quite heavily on their phones to stay in contact with family and loved ones when posted abroad. But commanders are considering tighter restrictions as they try to prevent useful information reaching Iran, according to Reuters.
Troops stationed in Jordan could have their devices confiscated within days, sources said. The country has become a frequent target of Iranian drone and missile attacks.
Cooper’s intervention follows the deaths of four US troops in recent weeks. Fighting resumed after Donald Trump’s ceasefire with Iran collapsed.
A video posted online this month appeared to demonstrate the military’s concerns. It showed a service member filming as troops ran for shelter during the deadly Iranian attack on a base in Jordan on July 17.
According to Cooper’s letter, the footage was recorded using camera-equipped Meta smart glasses and then uploaded to Instagram.
It revealed exactly where the person filming had been and how they had evacuated to a bunker. These sorts of details can help enemy forces work out exactly what happened after an attack, Admiral Cooper warned.
‘Iran knows the weapons were fired; however, their forces do not know if they missed by 50 meters, hit an empty tarmac, or successfully struck a crowded facility,’ Cooper wrote. Footage from the scene could provide some of those answers.
Even a short clip may therefore reveal information that isn’t obvious to the person posting it. The United States military is trying to stop Iran assessing which areas were hit and how personnel responded to the attack.
Cooper also criticised the concept of releasing detailed reports about the aftermath of attacks. He argued that published descriptions could provide Iranian forces with even more information they would otherwise struggle to obtain.
‘Detailed lists, descriptions, and analyzes of what was hit, openly published by news outlets are essentially performing Iran’s Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) for them, free of charge,’ he wrote.
The military’s concern about personal devices is nothing new. Pentagon officials have warned for years that mobile apps, including things as innocuous as fitness trackers, can expose exact location data which enemies may exploit for targeting.
Commercially available information collected from smartphones has also been used to monitor and strike US forces overseas.
Restrictions are already fairly common in sensitive military settings. Troops may be required to lock away their devices, while phones can be banned outright during certain missions involving special operations forces.
The prospect of a no phones policy has also unsettled family members. Many were already on edge as they followed Iranian claims of deadly strikes on bases across the Middle East.
The warning comes amid a growing toll from the conflict. 18 US troops have been killed and more than 600 wounded since fighting with Iran began back in February.
Public support for the campaign has also fallen. Just one in three Americans now endorse the war.
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