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Mohamed Fahmy: Iranian sleeper cells are activating, and Canada is a target

This country has been a haven IRGC members

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At least five U.S. diplomatic missions have recently been targeted in Iranian retaliatory strikes across the Middle East. With no definitive time frame on the end of the war, embassies are now being targeted beyond the region as well. The latest apparent incident occurred in Toronto, where unknown assailants fired shots at the U.S. consulate early Tuesday — an act the prime minister has condemned as intimidation.

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The attack being investigated as a “national security incident” comes a day after an improvised device placed at the building’s entrance caused explosion outside the U.S. embassy in Oslo, Norway, on Sunday.

Mohamed Fahmy: Iranian sleeper cells are activating, and Canada is a target Back to video

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At a moment when Canadians inside and outside the country are searching for answers — and reassurance — the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said the threat level in Canada from Iran or its proxies has not changed since the war began nearly two weeks ago, though threat-related activity is “likely to continue.”

“The level remains at ‘Medium,’ meaning that a violent extremist attack remains a realistic possibility,” a Canadian Security Intelligence Service spokesperson said in a statement to CTV News Tuesday night.

The emerging view is that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has activated longtime sleeper cells and escalated their attacks in an unprecedented manner to spread fear and send a message to both their critics abroad.

On March 9, U.S. federal authorities issued a high-level alert to law enforcement warning of potential Iranian cells operating on American soil. Intelligence officials say encrypted communications believed to have originated in Iran may serve as an “operational trigger” for sleeper assets abroad.

The alert cites preliminary signals analysis of a transmission relayed across multiple countries shortly after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a U.S.–Israeli strike on Feb. 28 — raising fears that dormant........

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