President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday of a "heavy price" if it or its allies in Iraq attack US troops stationed there.
"We don't want hostility, but if they are hostile to us, they're going to regret it like they've never regretted anything before," he said of Iran at a White House press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic.
"If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!" Trump tweeted earlier in the day.
The US president also wrote: "Upon information and belief, Iran or its proxies are planning a sneak attack on US troops and/or assets in Iraq."
It was not immediately clear what information Trump was referring to in his tweet.
At odds for decades, the United States and Iran have seen relations deteriorate further in the nearly two years since Trump abandoned Iran's 2015 multilateral nuclear deal and reimposed US economic sanctions on Tehran.
The United States blamed an Iran-backed militia for a March 11 rocket attack that killed two American troops and a 26-year-old British soldier in Iraq and, a day later, carried out air strikes against the Kataib Hezbollah militants in Iraq.
