A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Sunday the US military presence in the Gulf used to be a serious threat but now represented a target.
"An aircraft carrier that has at least 40 to 50 planes on it and 6,000 forces gathered within it was a serious threat for us in the past but now it is a target and the threats have switched to opportunities," said Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Guards' aerospace division.
"If (the Americans) make a move we will hit them in the head," he added, according to ISNA.
The US military has sent forces, including an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers, to the Middle East in a move US officials said was to counter "clear indications" of threats from Iran to its forces in the region.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is replacing another carrier rotated out of the Gulf last month.
Major General Hossein Salami, appointed head of the Guards last month, told parliament on Sunday the United States had started a psychological war in the region, the parliamentary spokesman said.
"Commander Salami, with attention to the situation in the region, presented an analysis that the Americans have started a psychological war because the comings and goings of their military is a normal matter," spokesman Behrouz Nemati said, according to parliament's ICANA news site.
