US forces using civilians as ‘human shields’ across region: Iran military spokesman

A senior spokesman for Iran’s Armed Forces says the United States is deliberately using civilian populations in neighboring countries as human shields to protect American troops and military equipment from Iranian retaliatory strikes.

Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, in a statement released on Tuesday, described US President Donald Trump as a “delusional” leader who launched a “savage aggression” against Iran under the false pretext of defending its people, while in reality acting to preserve the “child-killing Zionist regime.”

“Trump, when he found his army trapped against the powerful Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic, to compensate for his defeat, bombed the very people under the slogan of whose defense he had started the war, targeting innocent men, women, and children,” he said.

The spokesman said that after the US military became “trapped” in the face of Iran’s powerful and determined armed forces, American commanders, unable to ensure even their own security, evacuated bases and relocated troops and heavy weaponry into hotels, residential areas, and populated zones in several regional countries.

General Shekarchi said the Iranian nation and its Armed Forces have shattered “Trump’s arrogance and the hollow power of the trapped army,” proving once again that the presence of “criminal America” in West Asia is the root cause of all regional insecurity and instability.

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“This fake army cannot even ensure its own security, so some American commanders and soldiers, after fleeing the quagmire of death against the powerful onslaught of the Armed Forces, use the people of the region's countries as human shields,” he said.

Dozens of Iranian precision missile and drone operations have repeatedly targeted US military installations across the region in lawful self-defense in the wake of the aggression that began with the assassination of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Media reports say American forces have relocated to hotels and residential neighborhoods in the Persian Gulf states to avoid Iranian retaliation.

Iran says it harbors no enmity toward the peoples or governments of neighboring states and has only struck military targets that have been used to launch attacks against Iranian territory.

Several Persian Gulf Arab states hosting US forces have previously denied allowing their territory to be used for offensive operations against Iran, though American command-and-control infrastructure remains present in the region.

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