WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump warned on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) that the United States is targeting 52 sites in Iran and will hit them “very fast and very hard” if the Islamic republic attacks American personnel or assets.

In a saber-rattling tweet that defended Friday’s US drone strike assassination of a powerful Iranian general in Iraq, Trump said 52 represents the number of Americans held hostage at the US Embassy in Tehran for more than a year starting in late 1979.