Iraqi Militant Extradited to US Over Plot to Assassinate Ivanka Trump
According to the New York Post, a 32-year-old Iraqi militant was extradited from Turkey to the United States last week and charged with plotting attacks across North America and Europe, including an explicit threat to assassinate Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of President Donald Trump.
The suspect, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, was transferred to U.S. custody after his apprehension in Turkey and made his first court appearance in federal court in Manhattan. He smiled throughout the proceeding and declined to speak. His attorney characterized him as a “political prisoner” and a “prisoner of war” being persecuted by the U.S. government.
Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging al-Saadi with providing material support to Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, known as Hayi, an Iraqi militant organization that U.S. authorities say operates in coordination with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kata’ib Hezbollah, both designated foreign terrorist organizations by the United States. The charges allege he was involved in at least 18 planned or executed attacks targeting Western interests from February of this year onward.
Militant posted Ivanka Trump’s home address as assassination target
Al-Saadi had publicly declared his intent to kill Ivanka Trump on multiple occasions after the January 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the country’s most powerful military figure after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Al-Saadi had posted photographs with Soleimani on social media and described him as a spiritual mentor, vowing blood vengeance after Soleimani’s death.
According to former Iraqi deputy military attaché Entifadh Qanbar, after Soleimani’s death al-Saadi went around telling people: “We need to kill Ivanka to burn down the house of Trump the way he burned down our house.” Qanbar also told the New York Post that al-Saadi had obtained a floor plan of Ivanka Trump’s Florida home.
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He posted on X a map of the Florida enclave where Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner own a $24 million home, with an Arabic caption that translated, per court documents: “I say to the Americans look at this picture and know that neither your palaces nor the Secret Service will protect you. We are currently in the stage of surveillance and analysis. I told you, our revenge is a matter of time.”
FBI sting foiled plot to bomb US synagogues
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Al-Saadi’s arrest stemmed from an FBI undercover operation. Investigators say he believed he had made contact with a jihadist sympathizer, who was in fact an FBI informant. That introduction led him to a second undercover agent posing as a Mexican cartel member, whom al-Saadi tried to hire to attack Jewish targets inside the United States.
He provided the undercover agent with maps and photographs of Jewish community centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, and offered $100,000 to attack a synagogue, with the additional request that the attack be filmed.
The indictment also charges al-Saadi with conspiracy to carry out bombings in public spaces and with disseminating Hayi-branded claims of responsibility via Snapchat and Telegram.
Iran-linked Hayi group struck Europe while evading Western intelligence
According to the complaint, in the months before al-Saadi’s arrest, Hayi claimed responsibility for setting fire to an Israeli restaurant in Munich and attacking a synagogue in North Macedonia. In the United Kingdom, a drone bearing the organization’s insignia was spotted near Israel’s embassy in London. Investigators noticed an unusual pattern in how the group posted its claims on social media: in some instances, the claims appeared before the attacks themselves, suggesting direct operational involvement by the people running the accounts.
Prosecutors allege al-Saadi’s activities included involvement in a shooting at the U.S. consulate in Toronto, as well as arson and bombing attacks in France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
FBI Director Kash Patel described al-Saadi as a “high-value target responsible for mass global terrorism” and praised the multinational operation to capture him as “successful.”