CENTCOM warns troops on video sharing as 400 evacuated in Iran war

US Central Command issued an operational security warning to troops in the Middle East, prohibiting social media posts of base attacks that Iran could exploit for damage assessment.

CENTCOM warned American service members on July 29 against uploading videos of military base attacks to social media platforms, citing concerns that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could use the footage to evaluate the effectiveness of its strikes against US forces, according to a US military statement.

"The unauthorized sharing of attack footage provides adversaries with real-time battle damage assessment that would otherwise require significant intelligence resources to obtain," said Elena Fischer, a geopolitical risk analyst at Edgen, who previously covered defense and security policy. "This is a classic OPSEC vulnerability that becomes more dangerous as the conflict's tempo increases."

The warning comes as the US and Iran remain locked in a cycle of strikes and counterstrikes that has now entered its sixth month. Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East on Tuesday, all of which were successfully intercepted, CENTCOM said. Jordan's military separately reported intercepting five Iranian missiles early Wednesday. In response, US and Saudi fighter aircraft struck logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq linked to Iran-aligned militias that had conducted more than 30 drone attacks in the prior 72 hours.

More than 400 US service members have been flown out of the Middle East for medical treatment since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, a US official told CBS News, though most cases were not combat-related. The US has maintained a naval blockade involving more than 20 warships that has stopped 18 ships from entering or exiting Iranian ports, according to CENTCOM. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which handles about 21 percent of global oil trade, has collapsed to 29 verified crossings between July 24 and 26, down from roughly 100 daily transits before the war, data company Kpler reported.

The OPSEC directive signals that US commanders view information security as a growing vulnerability as the conflict grinds on. Iran's ability to calibrate its missile targeting depends partly on assessing which US bases have effective air defense coverage — data that could be gleaned from service members' social media activity. The last time the US issued a similar theater-wide social media warning was during the 2020 operations against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, when service members inadvertently revealed troop positions through geotagged posts.

Oil markets, which had rallied sharply during the initial weeks of the conflict, showed signs of easing during a brief diplomatic pause over the weekend. Brent crude fell 6.8 percent to $85.49 a barrel Monday, while West Texas Intermediate dropped 7 percent to $83.06, as the US paused strikes for two consecutive nights to allow Iran-Oman talks on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Those talks have made progress, an Iranian official told CBS News, though Iran's foreign ministry denied any direct negotiations with the US.

President Trump said Monday the US was in "very deep talks" with Iran but warned he would resume "very strong military action" if diplomacy fails. Iran's Khatam Al-Anbiya central military command responded Tuesday that it "will not leave any threats unanswered," calling recent US naval activities near Iranian territorial waters "an expansion of the war in the region."

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.