The US military is preparing for a possible strike on Iran that could come as early as the following day, according to a post by the account @clashreport on X that cited The New York Times. The post, published on 3 November, said only that the newspaper reported the preparations 1.
A second source, the Telegram channel Abu Ali Express, said US Central Command holds plans for a strike in Iran as early as Wednesday evening. The channel attributed the timing to a build-up of special conditions that would be available for a short window 2. Neither source includes the underlying New York Times article, and the channel's account is an independent claim of unclear origin rather than a confirmed official statement.
Other claims attached to the report, which come from the New York Times as relayed in the event description, say that American officials described a CENTCOM plan with three US aircraft carriers in the area, and that Israel asserted Iran intends to attack its neighbours with chemical weapons. Neither of those claims appears in the two cited posts, and they could not be verified independently here.
No strike has been confirmed in connection with this report, and no casualties are reported. The US and Iranian governments have not been quoted commenting on the reported preparations in the material available.
The report follows a period of reported military activity around Iran. Corroborated reports on 2 November described US strikes on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz and explosions in Bandar Abbas, Kermanshah and Omidiyeh. On 3 November, an oil tanker was reportedly targeted in the Strait of Hormuz, with smoke seen, though that report has not been corroborated.
Wider regional violence continues in parallel, including a reported Houthi missile strike on an industrial site in Riyadh and reported Saudi airstrikes in Taiz governorate in Yemen. These events are separate from the reported US planning.