Homeland Security monitoring potential Iran threat to US

Washington, Feb.16 (ANI): United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has told a House panel that her department is monitoring with concern the potential threats to the U.S. from Iran or its surrogates.

Napolitano said her department is "conducting a lot of outreach" to Jewish communities across the country to address any concerns after car bombs targeted Israeli officials in Georgia and India, and Iranians set off explosions in Thailand.

Jewish groups are also going to receive increased information from some law enforcement, though officials told Fox News they have seen no reason so far to boost security measures or expend additional resources.

The FBI is set to brief representatives from Jewish institutions around Washington next week on the latest threat assessment and how to identify and report suspicious activity.

The joint meeting with the FBI's Washington Field Office and the Baltimore Field Office had been planned for weeks, but in light of recent attacks overseas, FBI agents are now expecting the gathering's focus to shift to concern over threats from Hezbollah and Iran, according to one FBI official.

Napolitano told a House panel the U.S. government has still come across "no specific or credible threat against any organization or target in the United States," but her department and the FBI are "constantly monitoring" the activities of Iran's proxy group in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, however, expressed serious concern over what he called a "pending or possible threat" from Iran's proxies, saying "the threat of Hezbollah seems to have emerged (now) more than" ever during the past decade. (ANI)