Iran claims one million fighters ready for U.S. ground invasion

Yesterday 10:02

By: Dakir Madiha

Iran claims one million fighters ready for U.S. ground invasion

Iranian state media reported Thursday that over one million fighters stand organized for ground combat against American forces amid rising speculation of a U.S. offensive on Iran's southern coast and the strategic island of Kharg. Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, warned that any U.S. attempt to seize the Strait of Hormuz amounts to suicide. An unnamed military source told Tasnim that enthusiasm surges among Iranian ground fighters to create historic havoc for Americans on Iranian soil.

Basij centers, the IRGC and regular army report influxes of young volunteers eager to join. The source added readiness both for U.S. suicidal tactics to open the strait and to keep it closed. This rhetoric follows U.S. deployment of 82nd Airborne paratroopers and about 4,500 Marines to the region, with analysts eyeing Kharg Island—Iran's main crude oil export terminal—as a potential landing target. Reports indicate Tehran faces roughly 50,000 U.S. troops nearby, prompting Iran to reinforce the island with military personnel, antiaircraft defenses, mines and coastal traps.

Recent New York Times revelations first detailed how many of 13 U.S. military bases in the Middle East have become nearly uninhabitable from Iranian-backed missile and drone strikes, inflicting $800 million in damage over the war's first two weeks. Troops relocated to hotels and office buildings, a move Iran's foreign minister called using civilians as human shields. Since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's assassination on February 28 during Operation Epic Fury's opening strikes, IRGC has consolidated power as regime hardliners push Iran to quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and pursue weaponization.

Senior Tehran figures now see little gain in delaying bomb development amid ongoing U.S.-Israeli bombing. Iran rejected Wednesday a U.S. 15-point ceasefire plan, instead demanding reparations, halt to Israeli operations in Lebanon and closure of all U.S. Gulf bases. Authorities accused the Trump administration of feigning talks only to buy time for a southern ground invasion.