Some US troops in the Middle East may be ordered to hand over their cell phones due to the fear that videos filmed with them and posted on social media could help Iran carry out more targeted attacks on American facilities, Reuters reports.

US CENTCOM Commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, warned in a letter to the American military about the dangers of publicizing such information. It is noted that Iran can use videos and photos from social media to assess the effectiveness of its attacks in real time.

"The direct, unavoidable cost of this open-source intelligence could be measured in the lives of American service members and civilian residents in targeted Gulf countries," Cooper wrote in his letter Tuesday.

He called on US troops to "redouble our focus on operational security," without prescribing specific steps in the memo.

In Jordan, which has been a frequent target of Iranian strikes, some US troops have been told their phones will be confiscated in the coming days, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

According to one of the interlocutors, the measure could be extended to the US troops in some other countries in the region.

In a video posted online this month, a US servicemember recorded a video as soldiers ran for shelter during a deadly Iranian attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17.

Cooper appeared to reference the aforesaid footage in his letter, saying it had been recorded on Meta smart glasses with a built-in camera.