Shafaq News- Baghdad
A senior operative of the Iran-backed Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, made a formal pledge to assassinate Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President Donald Trump, and possessed architectural plans of her Florida residence, sources told the New York Post.
Al-Saadi, 32, “was allegedly targeting President Donald Trump’s family in response to the killing of Iranian military chief Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad six years ago.”
Entifadh Qanbar, a former deputy military attaché at the Iraqi embassy in Washington, told the Post that Al-Saadi had openly declared his intentions after Soleimani's killing. A second source independently confirmed the plot to the Post.
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Al-Saadi also posted a map on X showing the Florida enclave where Ivanka and her husband, property magnate Jared Kushner, own a $24 million home, alongside a threat in Arabic that read: "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.”
Arrested in Turkiye on May 15 and extradited to the United States, Al-Saadi faces charges brought by the US Department of Justice linking him to 18 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and North America. The Department of Justice said the charges include attacks on American and Jewish targets: the firebombing of the Bank of New York Mellon in Amsterdam, the stabbing of two Jewish victims in London, a shooting near the US consulate in Toronto, the bombing of a synagogue in Liège, Belgium, and the arson of a temple in Rotterdam.
The US sanctioned Kataib Hezbollah, for its part, denied any affiliation with Al-Saadi on Monday, describing him as “a supporter of the resistance” and that he would “return to his homeland with dignity.”