US Soldiers' Social Media Posts and Videos Help Iran Plan Attacks

Cooper said Iran was using news reports and online posts by journalists that referenced “reactions, photos, and footage from the cellphones of our troops,” according to The Jerusalem Post, which published the Reuters report.

“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,” Cooper wrote, calling on troops to “redouble our focus on operational security.”

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that some troops in Jordan have been told their phones will be confiscated in the coming days. A third source said such a move was being considered in the region because of operational security concerns but was not certain. US Central Command spokesperson Captain Timothy Hawkins said Cooper’s message was “a general reminder” about operational security and one of several ways he had conveyed operational priorities.

Reuters reported that a US service member posted a video this month showing soldiers running for shelter during an Iranian attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17. Cooper wrote that the footage was recorded on Meta smart glasses and posted on Instagram, showing “where and how” the service member evacuated to a bunker during an Iranian missile and drone attack.

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Cooper said Iran would normally have difficulty judging whether its strikes succeeded because of US electronic jamming and other battlefield tactics. “Detailed lists, descriptions, and analyses 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.

Reuters said 18 US troops have died and more than 600 have been wounded since the conflict with Iran began on February 28, while Democratic lawmakers have sought more information about damage to US bases and a military investigation into a likely US strike on a girls’ school in Iran.