The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned on March 31, 2026, that it plans to begin attacking more than a dozen American companies across the Middle East on April 1 in retaliation for the killing of Iranian citizens in the war with the U.S. and Israel. The IRGC posted the warning on its Telegram channel, stating that targeted companies should expect attacks to begin after 8 p.m. on April 1 in Tehran.

The IRGC named Apple, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Tesla, and Boeing as targets of the planned attacks. The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency also published a statement on March 31 listing 18 U.S.-owned companies that could be targeted as early as 8 p.m. local time on April 1. The IRGC urged employees of the firms to evacuate and advised workers to avoid their workplaces and the area within a one-kilometer radius of the listed locations. Civilians in the region were also told to stay away.

The IRGC designated civilian hardware and software providers as legitimate targets, accusing them of providing technology that enabled joint U.S.-Israeli attacks that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the war. Earlier in March, Tasnim published a list of 29 regional offices and data centers operated by Amazon, Google, IBM, Nvidia, and Palantir, accusing the firms of supporting U.S. military and intelligence activities. The IRGC had previously threatened to target U.S.-owned companies' infrastructure in Israel.

On March 1, Iranian drones struck two Amazon Web Services data centers and damaged another in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the first publicly confirmed attack on American-owned hyperscale cloud infrastructure. Banking sites, payment processors, and consumer services across the region crashed as redundancies meant to prevent outages were taken offline.

The U.S. and Israel launched their first attack on Tehran on February 28, 2026. Since the assassination of Khamenei, approximately 2,000 Iranians and at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed. The conflict has spread across the region, with Iranian retaliatory strikes hitting targets in Israel, Gulf states, and Iraq. The Strait of Hormuz has remained closed for weeks due to threats from Iran, disrupting shipments of oil and other goods globally.

The U.S. military bombed IRGC drone networks throughout March to disrupt planned attacks, and U.S. Central Command released footage of air strikes destroying mobile launchers. The U.S. temporarily paused strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure to explore potential peace talks with Tehran. The Pentagon is considering whether to deploy up to 10,000 additional troops to the Middle East to expand options for a possible ground invasion.

The U.S. government advised its citizens to reconsider travel to much of the Middle East, including the UAE, citing threats of armed conflict and terrorism. The IRGC also threatened U.S.-owned companies with a presence in the region, including Meta.