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Iran’s embassy in South Africa threatened two U.S. Navy officers with a “We will find you” message online as their warship returned to San Diego on Friday after a historic 357-day deployment that included combat against Iranian forces.
The warning, posted on X on Nov. 13 alongside images identifying the USS Spruance’s commanding officer and executive officer, prompted a regional expert to warn that Iran’s public targeting of American service members should set off alarm bells in Washington.
The embassy identified Cmdr. Leigh R. Tate, commanding officer of the Spruance, and Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey E. York, the ship’s executive officer.
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“We will find you,” the embassy wrote on X.
The embassy had previously singled out the officers in a March 28 post accusing them of ordering Tomahawk missile launches that killed 168 children at an elementary school in Minab, Iran.
“Remember these two criminals,” the earlier post began. “Don’t they have children of their own?” the embassy asked at the time.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, warned that the rhetoric coming out of Tehran should be taken seriously given Iran’s history of plotting attacks against American officials.
“This should be setting off alarm bells in Washington, in the White House, the Pentagon, and even within CENTCOM,” Taleblu told Fox News Digital. “The Islamic Republic has literally identified personnel that they allege are involved in strikes against the regime, and they’re talking about retribution.”
“If indeed there is any plot to go after these individuals, it is critical they’re detected, they are disrupted, they are defeated,” Taleblu warned.
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Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance fires a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile in support of Operation Epic Fury. (U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS)
The threat from Iran came a day after President Donald Trump warned Tehran against assassinating senior American officials.
During a Nov. 12 interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump was asked what would happen if Iran killed a senior U.S. official.
“They will not exist very long, any longer,” Trump responded.
His warning also followed reports that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had relocated from his Washington-area residence to a military base amid Iranian threats against his life.
Bessent confirmed the move during a Friday interview on CNBC, saying he was following Secret Service instructions.
“Why am I going to be afraid when the brave military personnel in the Gulf, President Trump, constantly receive death threats?” Bessent asked.
Bessent described Iran as behaving “like a dangerous cornered animal” and insisted the threats would not derail the administration’s economic pressure campaign against Tehran.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gestures while speaking at the U.S.-China Relations Gala Dinner on Nov. 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and senior White House official Stephen Miller have also reportedly moved into military or other protected housing amid security concerns.
In another post on X, the Iranian embassy in South Africa went on to mock senior administration officials over their security arrangements.
“Rubio, Bessent, Hegseth, and other U.S. officials live in constant fear, haunted by the crimes committed, and now confined to military bunkers for their own protection,” the embassy wrote, suggesting they should occasionally appear in public.
The threats come as federal authorities have announced developments in alleged Iranian-backed plots targeting Americans.
On Nov. 10, the FBI added Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operative Shahram Poursafi to its Most Wanted Terrorists list over an alleged assassination plot targeting former senior U.S. officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton.
That same day, the Justice Department announced terrorism charges against three men accused of involvement in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States, including an alleged plot targeting a British air base housing American forces.
The developments followed an Oct. 23 U.S. intelligence warning that Iranian efforts to target American personnel abroad had substantially increased, with some plots reaching advanced stages.
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The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer departed San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025, alongside the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group. Its deployment was extended as American forces conducted Operation Epic Fury against Iran. (Sandy HUFFAKER / AFP via Getty Images)
The embassy’s warning coincided with the Spruance’s return to Naval Base San Diego on Nov. 13, ending the longest deployment by a U.S. Navy destroyer since World War II.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer departed San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025, alongside the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group. Its deployment was extended as American forces conducted Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
The Spruance traveled more than 88,000 nautical miles during the deployment and launched dozens of Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles against Iranian military targets between February and August 2026, according to a statement released by the Navy.
The ship also destroyed 12 unmanned aerial vehicles and four anti-ship cruise missiles while operating under persistent threats from Iranian drones and missiles.
“Spruance, in particular, as the alternate air defense commander was, I would say, instrumental in defending the carrier, defending the force from those inbound threats,” Tate said Friday in the statement.
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The destroyer also participated in the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. In April, it intercepted the Iranian-flagged cargo vessel Touska after the ship failed to comply with repeated American warnings. (CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS )
The destroyer also participated in the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. In April, it intercepted the Iranian-flagged cargo vessel Touska after the ship failed to comply with repeated American warnings.
U.S. Central Command said at the time that the Spruance ordered the vessel’s engine room evacuated before firing rounds that disabled the ship.
Tate called commanding the ship during the extended deployment an “honor of a lifetime.”
“Spruance sailors made a difference,” Tate also said in a statement Friday. “They represented their families, their ship and the United States Navy with distinction.”
Meanwhile, Iranian officials have also been threatening U.S. military installations overseas.
On Nov. 11, Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei warned that Tehran could strike American bases in Europe if the United States resumed attacks on Iran.
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Mohsen Rezaei was named secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. A foremr Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general and member of the Expediency Discernment Council, as well as the secretary of the Supreme Council for Economic Coordination and the Iranian government’s Economic Committee, attends a ceremony at Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s shrine in southern Tehran, Iran, on June 4, 2026. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto)
“If the Americans make a mistake and attack us, we will not limit ourselves to nearby bases,” Rezaei told Al Mayadeen.
Taleblu described the embassy’s latest statements as part of an escalating pattern of threats against American personnel.
“This is an escalation of the course that we’ve been on,” he said, pointing to threatening rhetoric from Iranian diplomatic accounts and hard-line commentators during and after the war.
“So this is basically incitement and invective from the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, one which unfortunately has a track record of carrying these things out, even with a delay.”
He pointed to threats against U.S. military personnel following the accidental American shootdown of an Iranian civilian airliner in 1988.
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“Something like this is not unprecedented in the 47-year shadow war between the Islamic Republic and America,” Taleblu said, warning that the conflict has increasingly moved from covert operations into open warfare and increasing public threats on social media.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Pentagon and the White House for comment.
